Discourse

  • 7 in 10 College Students Find Legacy Admissions Unfair

    7 in 10 College Students Find Legacy Admissions Unfair

    For decades, U.S. colleges and universities have been giving an advantage to the children and relatives of their alumni — otherwise known as “legacy students.” But today, the vast majority of college students are against this practice.   The concept of legacy admissions has been around since the 1920s. And it’s common practice at many of… Read More

  • Are the ACT Test Changes for the Best?

    Are the ACT Test Changes for the Best?

    Earlier this month, the ACT announced changes to its college entrance test, claiming the changes will take some pressure off of students and make it easier for them to improve their scores.  The most notable change is that, starting next year, students who’ve already taken the ACT and wish to boost their scores can opt… Read More

  • Lawmakers, Universities, Nonprofits Step Up Efforts to End Student Hunger

    Lawmakers, Universities, Nonprofits Step Up Efforts to End Student Hunger

    Student hunger, once a seemingly hidden crisis, is beginning to receive the attention it deserves.  In April, Temple University’s Hope Center surveyed almost 86,000 students to find that nearly half of them had experienced food insecurity within the 30 days leading up to the survey. In other words, they didn’t know where they would get… Read More

  • How Universities, Students Can Help the World Achieve SDGs by 2030

    How Universities, Students Can Help the World Achieve SDGs by 2030

    For years, the United Nations and its member states have been striving to create a world that is more economically, socially and environmentally sustainable for all.  In 2015, they set 17 specific goals, named the “Sustainable Development Goals” (SDGs), and provided the world’s countries with guidance on how to achieve them by 2030. The goals,… Read More

  • How Colleges Can Help Transgender Students Struggling with Mental Health

    How Colleges Can Help Transgender Students Struggling with Mental Health

    A recent study found that students who identify as transgender, gender nonconforming, or genderqueer, are up to four times more likely than their cisgendered peers to suffer from mental health issues.  To come to that conclusion, researchers looked at self-reported rates of depression, anxiety, eating disorders, self-injury and suicidality in more than 1,200 “gender minority… Read More

  • Opinion: Free College Proposals Should Include Private Colleges

    Opinion: Free College Proposals Should Include Private Colleges

    Students can use federal financial aid to attend any college they want, whether public or private. But the “free college” proposals floated by some 2020 presidential candidates would increase federal funding only for community colleges or state-run universities. Private nonprofit universities would be excluded. The question is: Why? From my vantage point as scholar of… Read More

  • College Students Want Stricter Gun Control, Survey Finds

    College Students Want Stricter Gun Control, Survey Finds

    Nearly 70 percent of college students are in favor of banning assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines, according to a survey conducted by College Pulse.  Weapons that fit that description were believed to be used in the recent mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, Dayton, Ohio, and Gilroy, California.  In El Paso, 22 people were… Read More

  • The Lead-Up to the Proposed Rules on Title IX

    The Lead-Up to the Proposed Rules on Title IX

    Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 seeks to prevent sex discrimination on any campuses that receive federal financial funding. The provision is simple: No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education… Read More

  • Opinion: Public vs. Private College — Key Factors to Consider

    Opinion: Public vs. Private College — Key Factors to Consider

    With more than 3,000 four-year college choices in the United States, parents and students often go through an extremely difficult experience when selecting a college for a four-year undergraduate degree, weighing many different factors before making a decision.  Given the primacy of student debt in the national conversation about higher education, one key question is:… Read More

  • How College Towns Could Benefit More From Throngs of Student Volunteers

    How College Towns Could Benefit More From Throngs of Student Volunteers

    Millions of college students volunteer at soup kitchens, animal shelters and other nonprofits near where they go to school. The arrangement gives these young adults valuable experience that can help them launch their careers while giving charities a hand. As a professor who studies nonprofits, I’m interested in the effects student volunteers have on the… Read More

  • Washington State’s Big Bet on ‘Free College’

    Washington State’s Big Bet on ‘Free College’

    Washington state doesn’t have a problem finding educated people to work in its booming high-tech economy – it’s just most of those people come from out of state. This is why Washington enacted the landmark Workforce Education Investment Act into law in May 2019. The main idea behind the new law is to make college… Read More

  • Could Black Philanthropy Help Solve the Black Student Debt Crisis?

    Could Black Philanthropy Help Solve the Black Student Debt Crisis?

    When billionaire Robert E. Smith decided to pay off the student loans of the graduating class of 2019 at Morehouse College, he suggested that others follow his lead. “Let’s make sure every class has the same opportunity going forward, because we are enough to take care of our own community,” Smith declared in his commencement… Read More

  • Poll: Climate Change Is the Top 2020 Issue for College Voters

    Poll: Climate Change Is the Top 2020 Issue for College Voters

    College students view climate change as the most important issue in the 2020 election,  according to a recent poll conducted by College Reaction and WBRU, an internet radio station based in Providence, Rhode Island.  At first glance, this may come as a surprise, considering the state of student debt and the abundance of media coverage… Read More

  • In Higher Ed Reform, There Is Room for Bipartisanship

    In Higher Ed Reform, There Is Room for Bipartisanship

    As it does with nearly every political topic, U.S. mainstream media has attached partisanship to higher education. Recently, the overwhelming narrative surrounding higher ed has been that Democrats champion free college above everything, and Republicans refuse government involvement no matter the issue. However, results from a new national survey conducted by Third Way, a center-left-leaning… Read More

  • Poor & Minority Students Are Fueling College Enrollment, But There’s a Problem

    Poor & Minority Students Are Fueling College Enrollment, But There’s a Problem

    College enrollment has increased tremendously over the past 20 years, “almost exclusively” due to a surge in low-income and minority students, according to a 2019 Pew Research Center study. The study found that out of the nearly 20 million undergraduate students in the 2015-16 academic year, 47 percent were “non-white” and 31 percent were in… Read More

The University Network