As is typical in a recession, many community colleges are experiencing a surge in enrollment, at precisely the same time that they must--like many enterprises, both public and private--contend with choking constraints on resources. The reality for community colleges is this: No matter how good this nation's colleges are today--and they do…

Among countless petitioners to the incoming president, higher-education leaders have sent Barack Obama position statements and requests for action that extol the strengths and accomplishments of this nation's higher-education enterprise but also warn of its increasingly dire financial situation. They have asked that a share of an impending…

One after another at this time of year, elite colleges trumpet the outstanding SAT scores of the applicants they have admitted. The question often raised by such announcements is just how much those scores matter. Two recent studies conclude that they matter quite a lot. This article reports that researchers assert that selective colleges give…

Colleges across the US believe that they are in legal jeopardy if they continue to offer some services or benefits solely to minority students and are thus shifting their focus to serving the broader and more abstract goal of promoting campus diversity. As a result, the institutions serve fewer students from the minority groups that they…

In this article, the author provides insight on the issue of diversity in higher education. The author asserts that diversity--one of the great strengths of American education--is under siege today. At the elementary- and secondary-school levels, resegregation is making it exceedingly difficult for minority students to get the resources that…

The United States is falling behind other developed nations in terms of the share of its population with a college degree, and the gap will widen substantially unless the nation makes postsecondary education much more accessible, according to a report released last week by Jobs for the Future, a Boston-based research organization. If current…

Describes how members of minority groups view the affirmative action cases at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor on the basis of the difficulty they have had in gaining access to higher education. (EV)

For more than four decades, universities have used affirmative-action policies to increase the participation of U.S.-born women and members of minority groups in higher education, where traditionally they have been under-represented. Yet those policies, often applied in decisions about which students to admit and which faculty members to hire,…

The Dream Project, which started in 2004, pairs students at the University of Washington with first-generation and low-income students in six Seattle high schools. The program teaches undergraduates at the university about higher-education policy at the same time that they help disadvantaged high-school students apply to college. The college…

Describes how state budget cuts may pose a greater threat to minority access to higher education than would a Supreme Court ruling against affirmative action in the Michigan cases. (EV)

A report by the American Association of Community and Junior Colleges predicts a skill shortage, born of the mismatch between the needs of the labor market and the profile of the labor pool. A plan to enhance the future of minority students in higher education is outlined. (MLW)

Colleges must make radical changes in their structure, values, hiring practices, and the way they treat students if they want to attract more minority students and professors. Faculty members are given little incentive to work with minority students. (MLW)

Students at the City University of New York are protesting proposed tuition increases and budget cuts and using newfound confidence and influence to seek a variety of institutional improvements, including day care and campus security. Meanwhile, the institution is facing financial and administrative crisis. (MSE)

The college outlook is grim for blacks 25 years after James Meredith became the first black to enroll at the University of Mississippi. Both Hispanics and Asian-Americans are misunderstood by college officials, and too little attention has been focused on community colleges, the institutions that serve the most minority students. (MLW)

The McKnight Foundation presented a plan to Florida state higher education officials to create a perpetual fund to help support Black students pursuing doctoral degrees. The Florida Endowment Fund concentrates on those students whose grades are good but whose test scores may not be. (MLW)