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.
Western Governors University is no longer a newcomer. Founded in 1997, WGU is pushing 30 and has consistently been one of the largest institutions in the nation for years. Its website currently lists over 190,000 students, and its alumni network has surpassed 500,000 graduates. The private, nonprofit, online university is still growing its footprint and has been lauded for embracing competency-based education and serving adult learners.
WGU plans to build a new headquarters in Salt Lake City and recently opened regional offices across the country, including in Washington, D.C. In this interview, WGU's president, Scott Pulsipher, discusses WGU's growth, online learning, competency-based education, and more.
The University of Chicago Law School is rolling out a new artificial intelligence policy this fall, and it is likely to attract attention. To prevent over-reliance on technology, core first-year courses will pilot a ban on electronic devices, compelling students to develop foundational reasoning skills without AI shortcuts.
The strategy aims to cultivate essential human attributes like oral advocacy and judgment. Later in the curriculum, students will learn to ethically and effectively integrate AI into advanced legal research, writing, and clinical practice. UChicago's approach, which contrasts with a stricter AI policy at UC Berkeley, seeks to prepare graduates for a dynamic legal profession by teaching them to think "with, without, and about AI."
Like thousands of Wisconsin residents, Zack Beckman now has to send a significantly larger check to the federal government every month. Beckman’s student loan through the Saving on a Valuable Education, or SAVE, plan was eliminated on July 1. His payment under that plan was $250 a month—now it’s $733.
Researchers, meanwhile, caution that the increased student loan payments could have a ripple effect on the broader economy. In 2023, when student loan repayments restarted after being put on pause during the pandemic, a study by the Federal Reserve found that for every $10,000 in student loan debt, consumer spending dropped by about $630 a year once payments resumed.
Adam Lazar is three semesters away from earning a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering at the University of New Mexico, but for the last two years, he’s already been working in the field and earning the highest wage he’s ever made. When he graduates, the 28-year-old will have a full-time job waiting for him at the same company.
While many of his classmates struggle to find paid internships, Lazar has held a mechanical engineering internship at Redwire Space since 2024. He credits his career success to a 10-week noncredit bootcamp he took at Central New Mexico Community College. The program, called the Internet of Things, is one of the nearly 80 (and counting) noncredit, nondegree programs offered through CNM Ingenuity, a nonprofit branch of the community college focused on short-term workforce training programs.
Colleges hoping to build data centers to support their artificial intelligence efforts are facing unprecedented opposition. Once considered boring pieces of infrastructure, they've recently become political flashpoints: 70 percent of Americans oppose building data centers for AI in their area, according to a recent Gallup poll.
Oakland University, in Michigan, has seen protests over its proposed data center, for instance. At Fisk University, more than 17,000 people have signed an online petition against a proposed 100,000-square-foot data-center complex. Opponents compared the structure to an interstate that cut through Black neighborhoods in the 1960s.
When disasters such as hurricanes or forest fires strike, they often hit small businesses with few employees and limited financial resources hard. And increasingly, weather-related disasters are appearing in unexpected regions across the country.
In North Carolina, the Small Business Center Network, comprising SBCs at all 58 community colleges, helps small businesses prepare for and recover from disasters, regardless of their location.
