Lumina Foundation is working to increase the share of adults in the U.S. labor force with college degrees or other credentials of value leading to economic prosperity.
Artificial intelligence is everywhere, reshaping lives in real time and changing how we learn, work, and build community and relationships. Guided wisely, this technology has the potential to make human work better.
That’s why Lumina Foundation is proud to join Humanity AI, a $500 million, five-year commitment designed to center people, public good, and civil society in the future of artificial intelligence. Watch this video to learn more.
California State University, Fresno, recently celebrated the launch of a new program called Finish in Five, which allows students to earn both a bachelor’s and master’s degree within five years. University leaders were eager to offer students at the Central Valley campus—which serves large populations of first-generation and low-income students, many the children of local farmworkers—a streamlined pathway to high-demand STEM fields in an economically distressed region.
But less than a month after its launch, the program’s funding, which came from a Hispanic-Serving Institution grant, abruptly ended.
The Trump administration’s “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education” is reportedly open to all colleges to sign. A source at the U.S. Department of Education confirmed Tuesday that a Truth Social post from President Trump was intended to be an invitation to higher education.
The controversial compact says it will offer preferential tax and funding benefits to colleges in return for commitments in admissions, hiring, the treatment of conservative ideas on campus, and other areas of campus operations. Many in academe, however, consider the agreement to be a trap.
The Trump administration has hailed the career and technical training that community colleges provide, and it has called for greater investment in skilled trades. Congressional Republicans, meanwhile, expanded the use of the federal Pell Grant to more short-term programs, which policy experts say could be a boon for community colleges in coming years.
But for now, the Trump administration’s policy to cut discretionary grants for programs serving diverse student populations disrupts the very type of college education that the administration claims is critical for the nation’s workforce.
Growing up in Carlisle, Arkansas—a small rural farming community—Wendell Scales never imagined that his summer job with crop dusters would one day inspire a doctoral research agenda focused on transforming agricultural education for underrepresented students.
But as a first-generation college student navigating the complexities of higher education, Scales has learned that sometimes the most powerful pathways emerge from unexpected places.
Chicago State University president Zaldwaynaka “Z” Scott is worried about a statewide decline in college attendance, but especially the drop in Black student enrollment. Enrollment in bachelor degree programs by African American students fell 21 percent between 2012 and 2022, outpacing the overall decline in undergraduate enrollment of 14.4 percent in the same period.
Those numbers are a large part of why Scott is undertaking an ambitious plan to build more housing and amenities, thereby making CSU more attractive to candidates looking to live on campus at the predominantly Black institution.
