Beyond opportunity and grit
Editor’s note: This article was first published in Diverse Issues in Higher Education magazine. It is reprinted with permission. While we know that hard work and persistence are essential to success, we also know that…
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Removing a financial burden
Paying for college is one of the most significant hurdles students today face, and the past year and a half presented more challenge and change than ever before. When the Covid-19 pandemic reached our communities,…
The national standard for a free college tuition scholarship
Delaware led the nation in 2005 when it became the first state in the country to offer two years of free college tuition to recent high school graduates. The Student Excellence Equals Degree (SEED) scholarship…
Have we found the gateway to transform community colleges?
Community colleges are certainly “having a moment.” Congress, states and private philanthropy have invested billions of dollars during the Covid-19 pandemic (including $10 billion just in the American Rescue Plan earlier this year). They see community colleges…
Washington Watch: Ban on Pell Grant eligibility for inmates lifted: What’s next?
The ban on Pell Grant eligibility for state and federal prisoners went into effect in 1994 as part of sweeping crime control legislation. It took 26 years to remove the ban. It was among the…
Washington Watch: New OSHA rules hit many community colleges
Last Thursday’s announcement by the Occupational and Safety Health Administration (OSHA) of new Covid-related requirements will affect community colleges across the country – but not all of them. For many institutions, the state in which…
Washington Watch: Workforce training programs added to BBB Act
The latest incarnation of the House’s Build Back Better Act (BBB), released on Wednesday, adds two major community college-led workforce education programs. Taken together, these programs would award grants totaling $6.1 billion over the next…
Washington Watch: Big gains at stake
Much is at stake for community colleges as Democratic leaders maneuver this week to pass the revised Build Back Better (BBB) plan. Even without America’s College Promise, the legislation contains a bevy of provisions that…
Changing a college name is no small task
Editor’s note: Dabney S. Lancaster Community College in Virginia announced this month that its new name will be Mountain Gateway Community College, after leaders learned more about the former state superintendent and university president’s views…
Washington Watch: HEERF update and survey request
Although the attention of federal higher education policymakers has shifted to other issues, waiting in the wings for vigorous public scrutiny is an accounting of how higher education institutions have used Higher Education Emergency Relief…