Tag: Colleges

  • Cash-Strapped Colleges Opt for Wellness Vending Machines

    Cash-Strapped Colleges Opt for Wellness Vending Machines

    A wellness vending machine helps increase access to reproductive health products at College of the Redwoods.

    ADragan/iStock/Getty Images Plus

    According to a May 2024 Student Voice survey, roughly one in five community college students (19 percent) believe their institution should invest in wellness facilities or services to promote well-being. A recent pilot program across the state of California seeks to remove barriers to accessing health supplies for community college students.

    The Wellness Vending Machine Pilot Program, a state-funded program established by Assembly Bill 2482, which passed in 2022, aims to make preventative care products more accessible to college students. The program provides funding for 18 colleges to address students’ physical health and overall academic success in a unique, lower-cost way: through vending machines that dispense everything from Band-Aids to birth control.

    For some institutions, like College of the Redwoods, the vending machine is the primary source of personal care products on campus.

    Community colleges in particular are often underresourced and limited in their ability to provide students with wraparound support services. A 2024 survey by the Richmond Federal Reserve of 80 community colleges in the District of Columbia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia and most of West Virginia found that only 3.8 percent of responding institutions offered on-site health services during the 2022–23 academic year. The greatest obstacle to offering such resources is funding.

    Katrina Hanson, manager of retention, basic needs and well-being for the College of the Redwoods community college district in Central California, applied for the vending machine grant in July 2023 to address a service gap on the main campus in Eureka.

    The College of the Redwoods closed its Eureka student health center in spring 2023, shifting from having a part-time nurse to instead offering tele–mental health services through TimelyCare. It also purchased three wellness vending machines: two for Eureka and one for one of its other two campuses, on the Hoopa Indian reservation.

    “It’s not a complete substitute for in-person care,” Hanson said. “But it is more equitable for our students on our Hoopa [Klamath-Trinity Instructional City] and Crescent City [Del Norte Education Center] campuses, as well as all of our online students.”

    How it works: The college set up the three wellness vending machines in August 2023, placing one in Eureka’s library and the other in a residence hall, as well as one on the Hoopa campus. The grant requires participating colleges to place vending machines in a central location that students can access at any time.

    The requirements also outline the products that should be sold, including condoms, dental dams, menstrual cups, lubricants, tampons, menstrual pads, pregnancy tests and emergency contraception pills. College staff identify and supply the machines with other popular or needed supplies.

    Eureka’s wellness vending machine is located in the library, which has the most hours of availability for students, allowing them to access it when they need various health supplies.

    Katrina Hanson/College of the Redwoods

    For example, when Eureka’s health center closed, Hanson asked which services were most popular. She learned that pregnancy tests and urinary tract infection tests were most commonly used, so she now ensures that the campus vending machines has those supplies available.

    Other popular items are Band-Aids, which are free in the machine, and Benadryl, which is discounted.

    The machines themselves are rented from a company that also handles snack machines around campus, so the college does not have to deal with maintenance or money collection. Grant funding will cover the machines for the five years of the pilot, but supplies are budgeted by the institution.

    “We are trying to get it to be at least somewhat self-sustaining by trying out different items,” Hanson said. “The sexual health and menstrual health supplies are free or discounted, per our grant agreement. The other items we can offer at regular price to try to make some money to keep the project going.”

    Survey Says

    Inside Higher Ed’s Student Voice survey of college students found that about two-thirds of respondents (n=5,025) rated the variety and quality of campus health and wellness offerings as good or average; about 5 percent indicated they had poor resources. Numbers were similar for respondents at two- and four-year institutions.

    Two birds, one machine: In addition to offering tailored health products for students, the vending machines also work as a resource hub, displaying informational posters in English and Spanish to equip learners with important information.

    Poster content includes what to know about emergency contraception, how to use the opioid overdose–reversing drug Narcan/naloxone, sexual wellness education and how to provide feedback to the college about using the machine.

    Rightsizing: Since setting up the machines, college staff have noticed that two machines (the one on the reservation campus and the one in the Eureka dorm) weren’t being used often, or students were only buying certain supplies. In the residence hall, for example, students only really wanted condoms. So campus leaders elected to downsize and just keep the one machine in the library, offering free supplies in other places instead.

    This academic year, the most purchased items have been condoms, menstrual cups, fentanyl tests, Narcan, tampons and acetaminophen. Students also frequently purchase deodorant, energy gels, LiquidIV, lip balm, ibuprofen, pregnancy tests and cough drops.

    So far, the machines haven’t been profitable, but staff pull supplies from the Basic Needs Center or local partners to keep costs low and continue to vary their offerings.

    The college is planning to reopen its student health center following construction, so the vending machines will support students in the meantime, Hanson said.

    Do you have a wellness intervention that might help others promote student success? Tell us about it.

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  • 4 ways community colleges can boost workforce development

    4 ways community colleges can boost workforce development

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    SAN DIEGO — How can community colleges deliver economic mobility to their students?

    College leaders at this week’s ASU+GSV Summit, an annual education and technology conference, got a glimpse into that answer as they heard how community colleges are building support from business and industry and strengthening workforce development.

    These types of initiatives may be helping to boost public perception of the value of community colleges vs. four-year institutions. 

    Last year, 48% of surveyed Americans said they had high confidence in community colleges, compared with just 33% who said the same about four-year colleges, according to a Gallup poll. Moreover, policy analysts often view community colleges as an engine to increase workforce development — though some still say these institutions could do more to help their students. 

    Below, we’re rounding up four takeaways from community college experts about how these institutions can take steps to boost workforce development. 

    Bring industry into policy advocacy

    In 2023, Texas enacted a new outcomes-based funding formula for the state’s community colleges — a change that came with a $683 million price tag. Rather than basing funding primarily on enrollment, the state now ties the majority of its allocation to performance-based measures, such as how many credentials colleges award in high-demand fields. 

    As a result of the change, the state’s community colleges saw funding increases in fiscal 2024 ranging from $70,000 to $2.9 million, The Texas Tribune reported last month.

    Ray Martinez, president and CEO of the Texas Association of Community Colleges, said unified advocacy from the state’s community college leaders helped the measure gain widespread support from lawmakers. 

    Community college leaders also drummed up support from businesses to help get the new funding model over the finish line, Martinez said. 

    “We needed business leaders. We needed K-12 leaders,” Martinez said. “We needed other stakeholders to engage with us and to go to their members, to go to the folks that they knew at the Legislature, and say, ‘This is what we need for economic development and for future economic growth of our state.’”

    Look to industry to help create curriculum

    It’s not enough for community colleges to merely have business and industry representatives on their advisory councils, Martinez said. Institutions need to forge deeper relationships with these stakeholders, including by having them help craft curriculum for workforce education programs. 

    Although workforce education programs make up about a quarter of Texas community colleges’ overall offerings, that share is rapidly growing relative to academic programs under the state’s new performance-based funding formula, Martinez noted. 

    “I’m not sure you can single out an industry that is not changing rapidly because of technology or other reasons,” Martinez said. “If you are not engaging with employers in that constant loop of information, you’re missing out as a college.” 

    Focus on stackable credentials

    At Miami Dade College in Florida, leaders are focused on stackable credentials that can be linked together to form an academic pathway.

    Stackable credentials represent the “blurring of credit and noncredit,” said Madeline Pumariega, president of Miami Dade College. 

    “Nobody wakes up in the morning and says, ‘I want to go take a noncredit course,” Pumariega said. Instead, they seek out the quickest training available to land a certain job, she said. 

    But after students complete that noncredit training, it’s key for community colleges to return to them and say, “‘Great, we got you that training, but you’re now a quarter of the way there for a college credit certificate,’” Pumariega said. When students finish a certificate, college leaders can then offer them an associate degree before suggesting a bachelor’s program, Pumariega said.

    Don’t try to be a university

    Community college leaders have at times strived for their institutions to be more like their neighboring four-year universities, said Eloy Ortiz Oakley, president and CEO of College Futures Foundation, which aims to boost credential attainment in California. 

    “When I started out at community colleges, we were always looking to our sister university,” said Oakley, who previously served as chancellor of the California Community Colleges system. “Well guess what, folks? They need to be more like us now. Okay? They need to be opening their doors to regular working class Americans.” 

    Community colleges were built to generally serve 100% of students that apply, Oakley noted. 

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  • How a Drop in Ph.D. Students Could Affect Colleges

    How a Drop in Ph.D. Students Could Affect Colleges

    Under mounting financial and political pressures, universities have paused or rescinded graduate student admissions on an unprecedented scale, which could create cross-campus ripple effects next fall and beyond.

    The extent of the cuts to the graduate student workforce remains unclear and will vary from institution to institution. But if and when those losses come to pass, experts say that employing fewer graduate students—particularly Ph.D. students, who typically hold years-long research and teaching assistantships—will undermine universities’ broader operations, including undergraduate education, faculty support and the future of academic research, which is reliant on training the next generation of scholars.

    “First and foremost, a reduction in the number of graduate students may threaten that individualized, close attention for undergraduates,” said Julia Kent, vice president of best practices and strategic initiatives at the Council of Graduate Schools.

    That’s because many doctoral students work as teaching assistants, particularly for large introductory undergraduate courses, where they assist with grading, lead discussion sections, help students with assignments and supervise labs.

    “While a professor may be doing the lectures for those courses, they may not seem as approachable or accessible to undergraduates. In those cases, the graduate teaching assistant is the first point of contact for that student. They may go to them for questions or feel more comfortable asking for help with assignment,” said Kent, who added that graduate students also support universities’ learning missions in other ways, too. “They may also help staff in the writing center and support undergraduates writing essays for their classes and provide informal mentoring.”

    ‘Not Sustainable’

    Although colleges and universities haven’t felt the effects of losing a number of those roles yet, Kent said the uncertainty surrounding graduate admissions poses a “real risk” to undergraduate learning.

    If universities do want to maintain smaller class sizes with fewer graduate students, they may rely even more heavily on low-paid contingent faculty, said Rosemary Perez, an associate professor at the Center for the Study of Higher and Postsecondary Education at the University of Michigan.

    “That’s not sustainable for those instructors, who may be teaching five or six classes at multiple campuses and still not making enough to live,” she said. And with fewer graduate students in the pipeline, “we’ll also have fewer people who are trained to be faculty. People are going to retire. Who’s going to teach these college classes that have experience working with college students?”

    Nothing concrete has to happen for people weighing their futures to decide to take a different path where it seems like there may be more stability. Rational humans may decide that’s not the direction they want to go in anymore, and that’s going to be an immediate loss to the field.”

    —Marcel Agüeros, astronomy professor at Columbia University

    And with fewer spots available to prospective graduate students, Perez fears students who don’t attend top-ranked institutions will be the first to disappear from the academic pipeline. That’s because when resources are scarce, “the tendency is to rely on markers of prestige or GRE scores as predictors of success,” she said. “But those aren’t great predictors of what people are capable of doing in their careers.”

    Fewer graduate students will also likely mean a heavier workload for faculty, who in addition to teaching, also rely on them to help with research by assisting in running labs and research groups and co-authoring papers.

    “They help universities’ reputation, but they also help faculty funding prospects by making the faculty more productive, because funding agencies like to see productive faculty. A lot of that labor is happening through graduate students,” said Julie Posselt, a higher education professor at the University of Southern California, which last month revoked outstanding offers for numerous Ph.D. programs, including sociology, chemistry, sociology, molecular biology and religion. “Meanwhile, there’s also plenty of evidence that Ph.D. students are contributing to universities’ research output and are independently advancing knowledge in their respective fields.”

    Impact Will Reach All Fields

    Already, numerous universities across the country have said they’re reducing the number of Ph.D. students in the biomedical sciences as a result of drastic cuts to the National Institutes of Health, which each year sends universities billions of dollars in grants that indirectly and directly support graduate education.

    But it won’t just be those in the biomedical sciences that feel those cuts, especially as colleges downsize their budgets in light of the NIH’s plan to cap the amount of money it gives institutions for indirect research costs, which covers facilities maintenance, compliance with patient safety protocols and hazardous biowaste removal. Although a federal judge has blocked those cuts for now, the Department of Health and Human Services filed an appeal Monday; if the plan takes effect, it will force universities to find other areas they can cut from their budgets to make up the difference.

    “Even if you’re in the humanities, what’s happening right now in federal granting agencies that are far from the humanities has an impact on the humanities, because the overall budget for a university to do things like keep up their infrastructure and keep the lights on will go down,” said Jody Greene, associate campus provost and literature professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz. “And if we also don’t have international students, that’s also going to be a significant budget hit at institutions like ours.”

    International Students at Play

    In addition to drastic cuts in grant funding from the NIH, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Department of Education, the government has also revoked scores of international graduate students’ visas and detained several others.

    U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has characterized, with little concrete evidence, those students as “lunatics” who came to the United States “not just to study but to participate in movements that vandalize universities, harass students, take over buildings and cause chaos.” The administration is also considering a travel ban affecting 43 countries. (After Trump issued a travel ban for seven countries during his first term, the number of international applicants to U.S. colleges fell 5.5 percent for graduate students, though applications have been on the rebound post-pandemic.)

    But universities worry that targeting international students—who made up nearly one in four incoming graduate students in 2022—will create a chilling effect, cause international student enrollment to plunge and strip institutions of yet another vital revenue source. According to data from the Institute of International Education, 81 percent of international undergraduate students and 61 percent of graduate students completely fund their own tuition.

    Would-Be Ph.D.s Wary

    All this politically driven chaos and financial uncertainty is making graduate school—and a career as a faculty member—a harder sell for students interested in research careers.

    “Up until this year, we’ve been able to tell prospective graduate students that the university will cover the costs of their Ph.D.,” said Marcel Agüeros, an astronomy professor at Columbia University, where the Trump administration has frozen some $650 million in NIH funding. “We want to stay true to that commitment, but we’d be lying if we said that’s going to be 100 percent possible.”

    And even though his department is currently only expecting to offer one fewer Ph.D. slot, Agüeros said the uncertainty over the future of federal funding—and even what areas of research academics are allowed to pursue—is enough to push people out of academia.

    “Nothing concrete has to happen for people weighing their futures to decide to take a different path where it seems like there may be more stability,” he said. “Rational humans may decide that’s not the direction they want to go in anymore, and that’s going to be an immediate loss to the field.”

    And those are the questions would-be graduate students all over the country are asking themselves right now.

    “We don’t have any data yet, but anecdotally, I’m hearing that there are a ton of students who are choosing not to even try to go to graduate school this year and next year because they’re perceiving less funding and support,” said Bethany Usher, immediate past president of the Council on Undergraduate Research and provost at Radford University in Virginia.

    “Those Ph.D. students are the ones who push the boundaries of research,” she added. “They have the newest ideas, and if we reduce those, it will have a generational impact on higher education, industries and communities.”

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  • Most Students Say Colleges Promote Free Speech

    Most Students Say Colleges Promote Free Speech

    While freedom of speech remains a hot-button issue in higher ed, most undergraduates feel like they’re free to speak their minds on campus, according to a new report by the Lumina Foundation and Gallup.

    The report, released Tuesday, found that roughly three-quarters of students earning bachelor’s degrees believe their college does an “excellent” or “good” job of fostering free speech, including 73 percent of Republicans and 75 percent of Democrats. More than two-thirds of students of all races, genders and major political parties report feeling like they belong on campus, and at least three-quarters say they feel respected by faculty members.

    But some topics are more easily discussed than others. Most students feel like they can freely discuss race (66 percent), gender and sexual orientation (67 percent), and religion (62 percent). Discussing the Israel-Hamas war appears to be more fraught. Half of students report that pro-Israel views are welcome on campus, while 57 percent say the same of pro-Palestinian views. Students are also divided on how campuses have handled protests—a little over half, 54 percent, described their campus as doing an “excellent” or “good” job responding to protests and other disruptions.

    The report also showed that students are more likely to believe liberal views are welcome on campus than conservative views, 67 percent and 53 percent respectively. But most Democratic (78 percent), Republican (69 percent) and Independent students (73 percent) individually report that they can discuss their views openly on campus.

    “At a time when public discourse often questions whether free speech is still alive on college campuses, students are telling us a more hopeful story,” Courtney Brown, Lumina’s vice president of impact and planning, said in a news release. “It’s a powerful reminder that, despite the national narrative of polarization, many campuses are doing what higher education is meant to do: foster open dialogue, encourage learning and create a sense of belonging.”

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  • The Non-Exempt Staff Workforce in Colleges and Universities Is Shrinking

    The Non-Exempt Staff Workforce in Colleges and Universities Is Shrinking

    by CUPA-HR | April 8, 2025

    New research from CUPA-HR shows that the number of non-exempt* staff employees in higher education has been on a steady decline for the past several years. In the newest workforce trends report, The Non-Exempt Higher Education Staff Workforce: Trends in Composition, Size, and Equity, CUPA-HR examines the makeup of and trends in the higher ed non-exempt staff workforce from 2016-17 to 2023-24.

    One of the more notable findings: Since 2017, there has been a 9 percent decrease overall in the full-time non-exempt staff higher ed workforce. Part-time staff employee numbers have also fallen — down 8 percent in that same time period. The most significant downward trend began in 2020 (the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic), with decreases for both full-time (-3.3 percent) and part-time (-17.2 percent) staff.

    Some of the other key findings highlighted in the report:

    • Fewer non-exempt staff are age 55+. Non-exempt staff are slightly younger than they were pre-pandemic, and the proportion that is age 55+ has steadily declined from a high of 34% in 2019-20 to 31% in 2023-24.
    • Women make up 59% of the non-exempt staff workforce. They are best represented among office and clerical staff. Women in non-exempt positions are paid $.96 for every dollar White men are paid. Pay equity is lowest for Black ($0.92) and Hispanic ($0.94) women.
    • People of color make up 33% of the non-exempt workforce. This representation is much higher than in any other segment of the workforce, including administrators, faculty and professionals.
    • Women and Black staff experience multiple layers of inequity among non-exempt staff. They are better represented in the lowest-paying positions (e.g., dishwasher, custodian) than among the highest-paying positions (e.g., metalworker, electrician lead). They also have lower representation in lead positions than in non-lead positions.

    Read the report and explore this data with interactive graphics.

    *A non-exempt employee is one that is covered by (not exempt from) the Fair Labor Standards Act. As such, they are required to be paid overtime for every hour worked over 40 hours per week. Non-exempt staff must track their hours and be paid at least the federal minimum hourly wage. Examples of non-exempt staff in higher education include electricians, police officers, photographers, custodians, office assistants and food service workers.



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  • How colleges can improve financial transparency in fee payments

    How colleges can improve financial transparency in fee payments

    Effective higher education fee management maximizes revenue, reduces losses, and builds confidence with students and parents. However, 65% of institutions lose money owing to obsolete, manual processes (EDUFinance 2024). This is where student fees collection software shines.

    Let’s look at 10 data-driven strategies to improve student fee collection software for transparency and efficiency.

     

    Why Modern Student Fees Collection Software Matters

    Did you know 37% of college finance teams track fees using spreadsheets, which can lead to errors and miscalculations (Campus Finance Survey, 2024)? Student finance cloud technologies automate complex operations, reduce manual errors, and offer a transparent, real-time financial environment.

     

     

    How colleges can improve financial transparency in fee payments? 10 proven ways. 

     

    1. One seamless student registration and data sync

    Create comprehensive student profiles automatically matched with student information systems (SIS) including demographic data, course information, and financial details. Institutions running linked data systems report 23% faster fee processing.

     

    2. Clearly structured fees

    Fee breakdowns cause 48% of parents to argue (EdTech Insights, 2023). Flexible fees per department, course, or service offer upfront transparency and easier payments.

     

    3. Channel-wide fee collection automation

    Students prefer mobile payments 72% (Higher Ed Payment Trends, 2024). Make websites, mobile apps, and self-service portals accept rapid payments. Automated schools collected fees 27% faster and missed 15% fewer.

     

    4. Fine automation, absenteeism tracking

    Establish absenteeism and late payment penalties. Automation has reduced fee defaulters by 19% and ensures regular sanctions without manual follow-up.

     

    5. Role-based security to protect finances

    Role-based access control is non-negotiable even if 63% of higher education institutions report financial intrusions (EduCyberReport, 2024). Minimizing fraud and mistakes, only authorised staff should handle fee data.

     

    6. Parent portals for real-time fee visibility

    Parents demand more financial participation in their children’s education (82%, ParentPulse Survey, 2024). Parents receive transparent information regarding dues, invoices, and payment schedules via a portal, decreasing late payments.

     

    7. Automatic fee calculations for billing free of errors

    Errors in manual fee computation affect institutions’ annual income up to 4%. Calculate fees automatically using pre-defined criteria to guarantee correct, current billing for every student.

     

    8. Waivers, fee concessions, and flexible payment options

    Offer waivers, discounts, and flexible payment arrangements without any confusion on the back end. Supporting financially challenged students with structured payment plans resulted in 12% higher retention rates for colleges that have implemented this approach.

     

    9. Automatic fee reminders for on-time payments

    According to EduFinance Insights (2024), overlooked reminders account for 43% of late payments. Send automated fee reminders via email, SMS, and push notifications to significantly reduce the number of late payments.

     

    10. Real time financial transparency reports

    Access transaction history, income breakdowns, and outstanding amounts instantly. Real-time reporting improved financial forecasting and reconciliation for 89% of finance directors.

     

    The Bottom Line: Future-Proof Your Fee Management with Creatrix Campus

    Why let outdated processes drain your institution’s revenue? With Creatrix Campus Fee Management Software, higher education institutions can achieve:

    • Faster fee collection with automation and mobile payments
    • Enhanced financial transparency for students, parents, and administrators
    • Stronger security with role-based access and encrypted data
    • Real-time insights for smarter, data-driven financial decisions

    Ready to transform your fee collection process? Let Creatrix Campus help you boost efficiency, ensure transparency, and future-proof your institution’s financial operations.

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  • Black Colleges Ponder Their Future As Trump Makes Cuts to Education Dollars – The 74

    Black Colleges Ponder Their Future As Trump Makes Cuts to Education Dollars – The 74


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    The nation’s historically Black colleges and universities, known as HBCUs, are wondering how to survive in an uncertain and contentious educational climate as the Trump administration downsizes the scope and purpose of the U.S. Department of Education — while cutting away at federal funding for higher education.

    In January, President Donald Trump signed an executive order pausing federal grants and loans, alarming HBCUs, where most students rely on Pell Grants or federal aid. The order was later rescinded, but ongoing cuts leave key support systems in political limbo, said Denise Smith, deputy director of higher education policy and a senior fellow at The Century Foundation, a left-leaning think tank.

    Leaders worry about Trump’s rollback of the Justice40 Initiative, a climate change program that relied on HBCUs to tackle environmental justice issues, she said. And there’s uncertainty around programs such as federal work-study and TRIO, which provides college access services to disadvantaged students.

    “People are being mum because we’re starting to see a chilling effect,” Smith said. “There’s real fear that resources could be lost at any moment — even the ones schools already know they need to survive.”

    Most students at HBCUs rely on Pell Grants or other federal aid, and a fifth of Black college graduates matriculate from HBCUs. Other minority-serving institutions, known as MSIs, that focus on Hispanic and American Indian populations also heavily depend on federal aid.

    “It’s still unclear what these cuts will mean for HBCUs and MSIs, even though they’re supposedly protected,” Smith said.

    States may be unlikely to make up any potential federal funding cuts to their public HBCUs. And the schools already have been underfunded by states compared with predominantly white schools.

    Congress created public, land-grant universities under the Morrill Act of 1862 to serve the country’s agricultural and industrial industries, providing 10 million acres taken from tribes and offering it for public universities such as Auburn and the University of Georgia. But Black students were excluded.

    The 1890 Morrill Act required states to either integrate or establish separate land-grant institutions for Black students — leading to the creation of many HBCUs. These schools have since faced chronic underfunding compared with their majority-white counterparts.

    ‘None of them are equitable’

    In 2020, the average endowment of white land-grant universities was $1.9 billion, compared with just $34 million for HBCUs, according to Forbes.

    There are other HBCUs that don’t stem from the 1890 law, including well-known private schools such as Fisk University, Howard University, Morehouse College and Spelman College. But more than three-fourths of HBCU students attend public universities, meaning state lawmakers play a significant role in their funding and oversight.

    Marybeth Gasman, an endowed chair in education and a distinguished professor at Rutgers University, isn’t impressed by what states have done for HBCUs and other minority-serving institutions so far. She said she isn’t sure there is a state model that can bridge the massive funding inequities for these institutions, even in states better known for their support.

    “I don’t think North Carolina or Maryland have done a particularly good job at the state level. Nor have any of the other states. Students at HBCUs are funded at roughly 50-60% of what students at [predominately white institutions] are funded. That’s not right,” said Gasman.

    “Most of the bipartisan support has come from the U.S. Congress and is the result of important work by HBCUs and affiliated organizations. I don’t know of a state model that works well, as none of them are equitable.”

    Under federal law, states that accept federal land-grant funding are required to match every dollar with state funds.

    But in 2023, the Biden administration sent letters to 16 governors warning them that their public Black land-grant institutions had been underfunded by more than $12 billion over three decades.

    Tennessee State University alone had a $2.1 billion gap with the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

    At a February meeting hosted by the Tennessee Black Caucus of State Legislators, Tennessee State interim President Dwayne Tucker said the school is focused on asking lawmakers this year for money to keep the school running.

    Otherwise, Tucker said at the time, the institution could run out of cash around April or May.

    “That’s real money. That’s the money we should work on,” Tucker said, according to a video of the forum.

    In some states, lawsuits to recoup long-standing underfunding have been one course of action.

    In Maryland, a landmark $577 million legal settlement was reached in 2021 to address decades of underfunding at four public HBCUs.

    In Georgia, three HBCU students sued the state in 2023 for underfunding of three HBCUs.

    In Tennessee, a recent state report found Tennessee State University has been shortchanged roughly $150 million to $544 million over the past 100 years.

    But Tucker said he thinks filing a lawsuit doesn’t make much sense for Tennessee State.

    “There’s no account payable set up with the state of Tennessee to pay us $2.1 billion,” Tucker said at the February forum. “And if we want to make a conclusion about whether [that money] is real or not … you’re going to have to sue the state of Tennessee, and I don’t think that makes a whole lot of sense.”

    Economic anchors

    There are 102 HBCUs across 19 states, Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands, though a large number of HBCUs are concentrated in the South.

    Alabama has the most, with 14, and Pennsylvania has the farthest north HBCU.

    Beyond education, HBCUs contribute roughly $15 billion annually to their local economies, generate more than 134,000 jobs and create $46.8 billion in career earnings, proving themselves to be economic anchors in under-resourced regions.

    Homecoming events at HBCUs significantly bolster local economies, local studies show. North Carolina Central University’s homecoming contributes approximately $2.5 million to Durham’s economy annually.

    Similarly, Hampton University’s 2024 homecoming was projected to inject around $3 million into the City of Hampton and the coastal Virginia region, spurred by increased visitor spending and retail sales. In Tallahassee, Florida A&M University’s 2024 homecoming week in October generated about $5.1 million from Sunday to Thursday.

    Their significance is especially pronounced in Southern states — such as North Carolina, where HBCUs account for just 16% of four-year schools but serve 45% of the state’s Black undergraduate population.

    Smith has been encouraged by what she’s seen in states such as Maryland, North Carolina and Tennessee, which have a combined 20 HBCUs among them. Lawmakers have taken piecemeal steps to expand support for HBCUs through policy and funding, she noted.

    Tennessee became the first state in 2018 to appoint a full-time statewide higher education official dedicated to HBCU success for institutions such as Fisk and Tennessee State. Meanwhile, North Carolina launched a bipartisan, bicameral HBCU Caucus in 2023 to advocate for its 10 HBCUs, known as the NC10, and spotlight their $1.7 billion annual economic impact.

    “We created a bipartisan HBCU caucus because we needed people in both parties to understand these institutions’ importance. If you represent a district with an HBCU, you should be connected to it,” said North Carolina Democratic Sen. Gladys Robinson, an alum of private HBCU Bennett College and state HBCU North Carolina A&T State University.

    “It took constant education — getting folks to come and see, talk about what was going on,” she recalled. “It’s like beating the drum constantly until you finally hear the beat.”

    For Robinson, advocacy for HBCUs can be a tough task, especially when fellow lawmakers aren’t aware of the stories of these institutions. North Carolina A&T was among the 1890 land-grant universities historically undermatched in federal agricultural and extension funding.

    The NC Promise Tuition Plan, launched in 2018, reduced in-state tuition to $500 per semester and out-of-state tuition to $2,500 per semester at a handful of schools that now include HBCUs Elizabeth City State University and Fayetteville State University; Western Carolina University, a Hispanic-serving institution; and UNC at Pembroke, founded in 1887 to serve American Indians.

    Through conversations on the floor of the General Assembly, and with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, Robinson advocated to ensure Elizabeth City State — a struggling HBCU — was included, which helped revive enrollment and public investment.

    “I’m hopeful because we’ve been here before,” Robinson said in an interview.

    “These institutions were built out of churches and land by people who had nothing, just so we could be educated,” Robinson said. “We have people in powerful positions across the country. We have to use our strength and our voices. Alumni must step up.

    “It’s tough, but not undoable.”

    Meanwhile, other states are working to recognize certain colleges that offer significant support to Black college students. California last year passed a law creating a Black-serving Institution designation, the first such title in the country. Schools must have programs focused on Black achievement, retention and graduation rates, along with a five-year plan to improve them. Sacramento State is among the first receiving the designation.

    And this session, California state Assemblymember Mike Gipson, a Democrat, introduced legislation that proposes a $75 million grant program to support Black and underserved students over five years through the Designation of California Black-Serving Institutions Grant Program. The bill was most recently referred to the Assembly’s appropriations committee.

    Stateline is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Stateline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Scott S. Greenberger for questions: info@stateline.org.


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  • L.A. Community Colleges, CSUs Partner on Nursing Initiative

    L.A. Community Colleges, CSUs Partner on Nursing Initiative

    After tussling over proposed legislation to allow community colleges to offer a bachelor’s of nursing degree, Los Angeles County’s 19 community colleges and the California State University system are working together to tackle local nursing shortages. The partnership, spearheaded by Compton College, may signal a new phase of cooperation between the two systems.

    The Nursing 2035 Initiative aims to foster collaboration between community colleges, the CSU system and other stakeholders; conduct research; and devise strategies to graduate more registered nurses in the region over the next decade. The project also includes the Los Angeles Economic Development Corporation, the Department of Economic Opportunity with the County of Los Angeles and California Competes, an organization focused on higher ed and workforce development in the state.

    Keith Curry, president of Compton College, said the need for more nurses in the region is dire. Lightcast, a labor market analytics firm, projected 6,454 job openings for registered nurses in Los Angeles County annually through 2035, but degree-completion data from 2023 shows local colleges only produced 5,363 graduates with relevant degrees that year.

    Curry described a nearby medical clinic’s emergency room as “flooded” with patients at the same time aspiring nurses face barriers to entering the profession, such as vying for limited spots in nursing programs. Programs, meanwhile, struggle to grow because of challenges with retaining nursing faculty, who can find better wages working in hospitals, and competition for scarce clinical placements.

    The goal is “really trying to address health disparities in the community I’m from, and nursing is just another one of those issues that we have to address,” Curry said.

    Teamwork After Tensions

    The move comes after Gov. Gavin Newsom encouraged more CSU–community college partnerships on nursing last year after he vetoed two bills that would have allowed some community colleges to offer B.S.N. programs as part of a pilot program.

    At the time, community college leaders argued that expanding their nursing offerings beyond associate degrees would make nursing education more affordable and combat nurse shortages in the state. But CSU leaders opposed the legislation, countering that the new programs would be duplicative and force the CSU’s existing programs to compete for resources, like clinical placements. (The two systems have also cyclically battled over community college baccalaureate degrees since the state allowed them a decade ago.)

    Newsom came down on the CSUs’ side.

    “All segments of higher education should continue to focus on building these programs together,” he wrote in one of his veto messages, “and I am concerned this bill could inadvertently undermine that collaboration.”

    The initiative is an attempt to do just that, Curry said.

    “It’s not us versus them,” he said. “It’s about how can we partner together to solve a problem. So, I felt that CSU has to be the table.”

    Jose Fierro, president of Cerritos College and co-chair of the Los Angeles Regional Consortium, a coalition of L.A. County’s 19 colleges, said he and other community college leaders were “disappointed” by Newsom’s rejection of community college B.S.N. degrees because he felt like they would help his place-bound students. He said his campus is nine miles on average from local universities.

    Students “may not be within driving distance because they would have to uproot their families, or because of the high cost of housing, they wouldn’t be able to move to a different city to be able to access these programs,” he said.

    At the same time, he believes the collaborative approach will benefit students.

    “We are bringing county representatives, hospital representatives, state officials, California State and community colleges to look at our programs and our shortage of nurses in a comprehensive manner,” to think about “how can we work together to meet the needs of the community?”

    An Example for Others

    Some nursing partnerships between community colleges and CSUs already exist. For example, California State University, Northridge, has an A.D.N.-B.S.N. Community College Collaborative Program, which allows students earning nursing associate degrees at partnering community colleges to earn a B.S.N. on an accelerated timeline. A program at Cal State Long Beach also allows nursing associate degree students to take B.S.N. classes while in community college.

    Nathan Evans, deputy vice chancellor for academic and student affairs and chief academic officer at the CSU Office of the Chancellor, believes the Nursing 2035 Initiative can serve as an example of how community college and CSU leaders can strategically confront local nursing shortages together.

    “The boundaries of our institutions don’t have to be what they were in the past,” he said. “Our hope is that this is a model of what collaboration looks like between our segments and there’s a lot less friction in terms of the student experience, that there are clear road maps for students, particularly in the nursing field.”

    As a first step, the group plans to research the region’s nursing education and workforce and release a report in the fall with policy and budget recommendations on how to expand nursing programs in the area. The goal is to work on the recommendations through 2035.

    Evans said the initiative is “using data to really drive a needs assessment and then allow that to lead us to, what are the ways we collectively can respond?”

    The hope is that process leads to new, innovative partnerships, said Fierro. For example, he can imagine CSUs offering B.S.N. programs on community college campuses, or partnering with community colleges on collaborative programs, so that students who struggle to commute to universities because of work or family obligations have more options.

    “To me, the main objective is to ensure that we bring that value to the local communities,” he said, “regardless of whose name is issuing the diploma.”

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  • Two tribal colleges have been allowed to rehire staff that had been cut by the federal government

    Two tribal colleges have been allowed to rehire staff that had been cut by the federal government

    After weeks of uncertainty, two tribal colleges have been told they can hire back all employees who were laid off as part of the Trump administration’s deep cuts across the federal workforce in February, part of a judge’s order restoring some federal employees whose positions were terminated.

    Haskell Indian Nations University in Kansas and Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute, widely known as SIPI, in New Mexico lost about 70 employees in mid-February amid widespread staffing cuts to federal agencies. While most of the nation’s 37 tribal colleges and universities are chartered by American Indian tribes, Haskell and SIPI are not associated with individual tribes and are run by the federal government.

    About 55 employees were laid off and 15 accepted offers to resign, according to a lawsuit filed last month by tribes and students. The colleges were forced to cancel or reconfigure a wide range of services, from sports and food service to financial aid and classes. In some cases, instructors were hired by other universities as adjuncts and then sent back to the tribal colleges to keep teaching.

    Related: Interested in more news about colleges and universities? Subscribe to our free biweekly higher education newsletter.

    It was not clear this week when and if the workers would return, whether the employees who resigned would also be offered their jobs back, or if the government would allow colleges to fill vacancies. Both colleges said some employees had turned down the offers.

    The Bureau of Indian Education, which runs the colleges, declined to answer questions except to confirm the laid-off workers would be offered jobs with back pay to comply with a judge’s order that the government reverse course on thousands of layoffs of probationary employees. But the agency also noted the jobs would be available “as the White House pursues its appeals process,” indicating possible turmoil if an appeals court reinstates the layoffs.

    Both colleges said the bureau also has refused to answer most of their questions.

    SIPI leaders were told last week that the positions were being restored, said Adam Begaye, chairman of the SIPI Board of Regents. The 270-student college lost 21 employees, he said, four of whom decided to take early retirement. All but one of the remaining 17 agreed to return, Begaye said.

    The chaos has been difficult for those employees, he said, and the college is providing counseling.

    “We want to make sure they have an easy adjustment, no matter what they’ve endured,” Begaye said.

    Related: How a tribe won a legal battle against the federal Bureau of Indian Education and still lost

    The chairman of Haskell’s Board of Regents, Dalton Henry, said he was unsure how many of the 50 lost employees were returning. Like SIPI, Haskell was forced after the layoffs to shift job responsibilities and increase the workload for instructors and others.

    Haskell was reviewed by accreditors in December, and Henry said he was worried how the turmoil would affect the process. Colleges and universities must be accredited to offer federal and state financial aid and participate in most other publicly funded programs.

    Henry declined to discuss his thoughts on the chaos, saying there was nothing the college could do about it.

    “Whatever guidance is provided, that’s what we have to adhere to,” he said. “It’s a concern. But at this point, it’s the federal government’s decision.”

    The Bureau of Indian Affairs declined to make the presidents of the two colleges available for interviews.

    Tribal colleges and universities were established to comply with treaties and the federal trust responsibility, legally binding agreements in which the United States promised to fund Indigenous education and other needs. But college leaders argue the country has violated those contracts by consistently failing to fund the schools adequately.

    In the federal lawsuit claiming the Haskell and SIPI cuts were illegal, students and tribes argued the Bureau of Indian Education has long understaffed the colleges. The agency’s “well-documented and persistent inadequacies in operating its schools range from fiscal mismanagement to failure to provide adequate education to inhospitable buildings,” plaintiffs claimed.

    Related: Tribal college campuses are falling apart. The U.S. hasn’t fulfilled its promise to fund the schools

    Sen. Jerry Moran and Rep. Tracey Mann, both Kansas Republicans, said before Trump took office that they plan to introduce a bill shifting Haskell from federal control to a congressional charter, which would protect the university from cuts across federal agencies such as the Bureau of Indian Education.

    “[F]or the last few years the university has been neglected and mismanaged by the Bureau of Indian Education,” Moran said in a written statement in December. “The bureau has failed to protect students, respond to my congressional inquiries or meet the basic infrastructure needs of the school.”

    The February cuts brought rare public visibility to tribal colleges, most of which are in remote locations. Trump’s executive orders spurred outrage from Indigenous communities and a flurry of national news attention.

    “We’re using this chaos as a blessing in disguise to make sure our family and friends in the community know what SIPI provides,” said Begaye, the SIPI board president.

    The uncertainty surrounding the colleges’ funding has left a lasting mark, said Ahniwake Rose, president and CEO of the American Indian Higher Education Consortium, which advocates for tribal colleges. But she added she was proud of how the schools have weathered the cuts.

    “Indian country is always one of the most resourceful and creative populations,” she said. “We’ve always made do with less. I think you saw resilience and creativity from Haskell and SIPI.”

    Contact editor Christina A. Samuels at 212-678-3635 or samuels@hechingereport.org.

    This story about tribal colleges was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the Hechinger newsletter.

    The Hechinger Report provides in-depth, fact-based, unbiased reporting on education that is free to all readers. But that doesn’t mean it’s free to produce. Our work keeps educators and the public informed about pressing issues at schools and on campuses throughout the country. We tell the whole story, even when the details are inconvenient. Help us keep doing that.

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  • More colleges are creating homeless liaison roles. Here’s why.

    More colleges are creating homeless liaison roles. Here’s why.

    When students at Monroe Community College experience homelessness, they often meet with Nicole Meyer. Since 2023, Meyer has been the homeless liaison at the two-year public institution in Rochester, New York, which is within the State University of New York system. 

    Nearly two years ago, SUNY required each of its 64 colleges to designate a person to serve as homeless liaison on their campuses — part of a nationwide movement to create such a position at higher education institutions. 

    Higher ed institutions and states throughout the U.S. have passed laws and implemented policies over the past decade or so designating homeless liaisons on campuses. The movement has been fueled by a growing recognition that many students experience homelessness during their college years, experts say.

    Around 8% of undergraduates and nearly 5% of graduate students reported experiencing homelessness in a 2020 survey that was published in 2023 from National Center for Education Statistics.

    “There has long been an assumption that if someone was in college, that they had the financial well-being to cover all their expenses,” said Rashida Crutchfield, executive director of the Center for Equitable Higher Education at California State University, Long Beach. “As higher education has learned that [homelessness] is part of the student experience, you’re seeing a lot more responsiveness to our responsibility to address it.”

    Students experiencing homelessness typically don’t have family or friends who have attended college and therefore lack a network to help them navigate the financial aid system, campus life and important resources, said Barbara Duffield, executive director of the nonprofit SchoolHouse Connection. 

    A homeless liaison thus becomes a point person on campus who can connect these students with resources that will help them remain enrolled through graduation, Duffield said. 

    In fact, a lack of housing can hinder students’ ability to focus on their studies, causing them to drop out, Duffield said. Additionally, such students often grapple with mental health issues, a sense of isolation and family-related issues, she said. On top of all that, they often must balance jobs with their classes, she said. 

    In Meyer’s case, by fall 2024 she had worked with 173 Monroe students experiencing housing insecurity or homelessness — roughly 2% of the college’s student population. A disproportionate share of those students are Black, Brown and women, Meyer said. 

    Meyer helps students find sustainable on- or off-campus housing — a challenging task given surging rental costs in Rochester. She works with the financial aid office and other administrators to help the students access scholarships, grants and the college’s emergency funds. 

    In addition, Meyer said she connects with school districts to help prepare high schoolers experiencing homelessness for the transition to college and partners with local organizations to help Monroe students navigate health insurance, transportation, child care and a host of other needs. Essentially, she’s the designated point person for all those students. 

    “I’m a one-stop-shop for basic needs, and housing and security,” said Meyer. 

     

    The origins of homeless liaisons

    The homeless liaison role emerged at the higher ed level following the 2007 passage of the federal College Cost Reduction Access Act — a bill that increased funding for Pell Grants, made reforms to the financial aid system such as expanding repayment options for borrowers, and gave unaccompanied homeless youth independent student status when applying for financial aid, Duffield said. 

    That meant youths living in shelters, outside, in cars, in hotels, or on couches could apply for federal financial aid without their parents’ signatures, she said. 

    “This was really important because for so many young people, they are not in touch with their parents, they’re not being supported by their parents, and it’s just barrier after barrier after barrier to getting financial aid,” Duffield said. 

    At the time, Duffield said, colleges lacked knowledge about unaccompanied homeless youth, as well as training to identify those students and address the barriers they face. 

    Following the 2007 law, Colorado policymakers tried to rectify that knowledge gap by organizing a task force composed of students and higher ed and K-12 administrators. One of the task force’s recommendations called for establishing a single point of contact at every college and university in Colorado, based on a liaison model already used in K-12 districts. 

    Colorado colleges appointed homeless liaisons in 2009, establishing a first-of-its-kind model in the U.S., according to a fact sheet from the state’s education department. 

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