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.
At first glance, Southeastern Michigan University’s website looks like it represents a real institution. A chatbot pops up to ask, “How can I help you?” But littered throughout the website are signs that something is off about Southeastern Michigan. Some images seem likely to fool the untrained eye, while others—like a basketball player with veins bulging from his angular arms—could have been ripped from a poorly illustrated comic book.
In reality, the university is as fake as some of the content on its website. And it’s part of a much larger scam fueled in part by the rise of generative AI.
Khori Davis spent much of last school year at Kent State University’s multicultural center. It served as an anchor for her, a Black student on the predominantly white campus. She studied, socialized, and attended events there, often dropping by between classes for respite.
But this summer, the Ohio-based university shuttered its multicultural center in response to a new state law that bans diversity, equity, and inclusion programs at public universities and colleges. At least 12 universities and colleges across six states have taken similar measures and closed their centers this year, citing state or federal anti-DEI efforts.
The small Indian takeout restaurant in Atlanta’s historic Auburn Avenue district hummed with quiet conversation as Dr. Ibram X. Kendi settled into a corner booth, his presence both commanding and understated. Just blocks away, the eternal flame burned at the tomb of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King—a proximity that felt anything but coincidental as one of America’s most influential scholars on racism prepared to discuss his return to historically Black higher education.
This August, Kendi will officially begin his tenure as a professor of history at Howard University and founding director of the Howard Institute for Advanced Study. It’s a homecoming of sorts—not just to the Washington, D.C. area where he once lived, but to the HBCU ecosystem that has long been central to his personal mission.
For Jess Concepcion, a microbiology student from the Philippines, obtaining a doctorate from a university in the United States had been a dream. It was where most of his academic mentors had studied and done research, and he wanted to follow in their footsteps.
But when the United States, under President Donald Trump, started pausing visa interviews during peak season this spring, threatening to deport international students, and slashing funding for academic research, he quickly changed plans. Now, other countries are eager to capitalize on those decisions.
Halfway through his Monday morning class at Northeast Wisconsin Technical College’s Green Bay campus last month, Patrick Parise instructed his students to hold up their fingers: one if they’re confused about the lesson, 10 if they’ve mastered it. When met with a sea of “jazz hands,” he moves on to review the next chapter.
Students will take their final exam several days later, after absorbing major ethical theories and key philosophers’ views in just eight weeks—half the length of the traditional 16-week college course. Administrators and instructors say the intensive pace helps students perform better and prevents them from dropping out when they face hardships outside of school.
Some of America’s most vital engines of post-high school learning and opportunity are overlooked and underfunded. Historically Black Community Colleges and Predominantly Black Community Colleges play an outsized role in connecting people to learning, credentials, and careers, especially in communities that traditional schools have long underserved.
Yet despite their importance in students’ lives, these colleges face tough odds and often go unrecognized. A new study shares valuable and timely insight about these institutions and why they represent models of what higher education can be.
