Historical and predominantly Black community colleges often get overlooked when it comes to funding for higher education. However, leaders nationwide are seeking ways to improve support for these institutions.
Complete College of America and
Lumina Foundation organized a webinar recently to discuss the needs of these colleges and their crucial role in promoting equal opportunities for Black students.
Brandon Nichols, senior vice president for academic affairs at
Olive-Harvey College, a historically Black community college, emphasized the need for funding to provide wraparound services to under-resourced students.
"One of the things that we noticed was the food insecurities," he said. "So we actually have a pantry that is now on site for our students to have access to. And we know that our students come to school hungry, may not have had the resources or access to be able to go to the grocery store that impacts the level of success in the classroom."
Olive-Harvey College is part of the Chicago State University system, with more than 7,000 students enrolled in scientific, technical and liberal-arts courses. Nichols said because it is the only group of Historically Black Colleges in Illinois, they feel a special responsibility to offer support to their students.
Nichols pointed out that funding is crucial in supporting what he calls the school's "stranded workforce" - individuals striving for a degree but held back by financial obstacles or other responsibilities. He said a majority of students come from a low-income background, which makes college necessities such as books, laptops, child care and even food sometimes hard to afford.
"We want to make sure that we give our students the resources they need to be the most successful," he said. "Next aspect is that we want to make sure that our students and our community also reflect the faculty that we have that are teaching our courses. We're very intentional to ensure that we have faculty that reflect our students."
Advocates from other states also highlighted the essential resources that historically Black colleges offer to support first-generation students and emphasize the need for impactful research that reflects their community influence.
Support for this reporting was provided by Lumina Foundation.
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Artificial intelligence is expected to significantly change people's lives and New Mexico State University is meeting the challenge by offering the state's first AI degree.
The higher ed institution located in Las Cruces will introduce the state's first Bachelor of Science degree in AI starting in fall 2026.
Enrico Pontelli, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at New Mexico State University, felt AI should not only be taught at Ivy League schools but made accessible to learners in New Mexico. He said no matter what kind of job you have, learning a bit about AI is essential.
"We see a lot of students who come to college, they understand something about AI but they don't understand how to use it properly," Pontelli explained. "AI can be a great tool to learn, using AI as your companion to help you, not to replace you."
Pontelli noted the university's bachelor of science degree is not only for students just out of high school but for those whose current job may demand new skills. He hopes the university's training will eventually include graduate programs and offer micro-credentials to community members.
AI jobs are those in which a significant portion of the tasks can be performed or aided by artificial intelligence. Pontelli knows a lot of fear has been generated around the emerging technology but said it is nothing to be afraid of and it isn't going away.
"There is a lot of talk about, 'Yeah, I'm losing my job to AI,'" Pontelli observed. "Nobody's going to lose their job to AI. People are going to lose their job to people that know how to use AI."
By offering the degree, Pontelli hopes graduates can contribute to the state's economic development and use AI to work on solutions to address societal and environmental challenges. He added the new program dovetails with the 2024 launch of the statewide New Mexico Artificial Intelligence Consortium.
Support for this reporting was provided by Lumina Foundation.
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Journalism and the way people consume news is changing, and Arizona State University will soon launch an initiative it claims will "build a stronger, more trusted and financially stable news ecosystem."
The Knight Center for the Future of News will be housed within the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, set to open July 1. The school's dean, Battinto Batts, said the Knight Center will be made up of three labs - to address declining public trust in news, explore new revenue models for news organizations, and experiment with new forms of storytelling.
Batts said an information hub will gather insights and promote best practices across the industry.
"So, we have all those things going on at the same time," he said, "and so the Knight Center for the Future of News looks to embrace those disruptions and say, 'OK, how do we embrace those disruptions that are going on and then find a path forward?' We're seeking to be engineers."
He said the Knight Center will bring together educators, researchers, students, working journalists and newsrooms.
Polling shows Americans continue to express record low levels of confidence in the media, with only one-third saying they have confidence that news is being reported fairly and accurately.
Batts said journalists who have remained committed to gathering, writing, editing and disseminating news believe in the cause and know how important it is to a healthy democracy.
"The importance of media, and news and journalism to be able to inform people, to give them the information that they need to make healthy, important decisions that impact their daily lives - that's going to exist whether or not the business model changes or not and so, it has evolved," he said.
Batts added the threat posed by information isn't a new concept - but it's been intensified because of new technologies. And he encouraged current and future journalists to focus on the vital mission of keeping audiences informed.
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More than 70,000 Marylanders are student parents, raising kids while attending college full or part-time and proposed cuts in this year's big budget bill in Congress could make it more difficult for them to earn their degrees.
House Republicans' version of the bill would require taking 15 credit-hours instead of 12 to receive a full Pell Grant. For some, it would mean nearly $1,500 less on a grant which already does not cover the cost of college.
Ewaoluwa Obatuase, policy analyst at the think tank New America, said it is not the only potential change making it tougher for student parents.
"They have to juggle work. They have to juggle school and parenting," Obatuase pointed out. "This reconciliation bill will strip the critical support they need to succeed in college. It reduces funding for SNAP. It reduces funding for Medicaid, and it complicates the financial aid system."
Republican lawmakers have argued increasing the bar for Pell Grant eligibility is necessary to keep the program funded. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the Pell Grant program faces a $2.7 billion funding shortfall.
The cuts would also reduce financial aid options for 1 million parents who are graduate students, by decreasing affordable loan repayment options, like Grad and Parent Plus loans. Obatuase acknowledged the Senate is still working on its version of the tax-cut and spending bill but if the steep cuts in the House version survive, it cannot help but affect student parents.
"It makes it harder to afford college. It makes it harder to repay loans, and it makes it harder to build a better life in this country, all while giving tax cuts to the wealthy millionaires and billionaires of this country," Obatuase stressed. "This bill literally does not do anything to help our student parents. It harms them."
Research shows attaining a college degree is one of the biggest contributors to economic mobility. According to the Association of Public-Land Grant Universities, people who earn a bachelor's degree make more than $1.2 million more income over their lifetime than those who do not.
Support for this reporting was provided by Lumina Foundation.
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