Amazon, gig companies see spike in workers on SNAP and Medicaid, study shows — from washingtonpost.com by Lauren Kaori Gurley and Rachel Lerman
Amazon workers on federal aid nearly tripled between 2020 and 2025, while ride-hailing and food delivery drivers shot up on lists compiled by the U.S. Government Accountability Office.
On 07/22/2026,
in Amazon, business, career development, communities of practice, corporate / business world, Daniel S. Christian, economics, entrepreneurship, funding / grants, legislatures / government / legal, society, workplace,
by Daniel Christian
On 05/20/2026,
in accreditation, Alternatives, business side of he, change, changing business models, colleges, community colleges, cost of getting a degree, Daniel S. Christian, expectations, experimentation, faculty/staff, funding / grants, higher education, ideas, innovation, leadership, learning ecosystem, liberal arts, pace of change, parents/guardians, strategy, United States, universities,
by Daniel Christian
Putting college on the fast track — from hechingerreport.org by Jon Marcus
As students grow impatient, colleges try three-year bachelor’s degrees
Some colleges and the accreditors and states that oversee them are adding and approving three-year bachelor’s degrees that require fewer credits than the traditional four-year kind.
Institutions facing enrollment declines hope the new three-year degrees will attract students unwilling to spend the usual amount of time and money that it takes to graduate. States need those graduates to fill jobs.
Nearly 60 universities and colleges are planning, considering or have already launched reduced-credit, three-year bachelor’s degrees in some disciplines. They’re calling them “applied” or “career-focused” bachelor’s degrees.
While earning bachelor’s degrees with fewer credits may appeal to some students, the idea is so new that there’s a key unanswered question: whether employers, graduate schools and licensing agencies will accept them.
From DSC:
Given the often high price of obtaining a degree these days…whether it’s a 4-year program or a 3-year program, the key is whether a student can get a good job coming out of that program. I think the required time doesn’t help as much as making the necessary changes to offer more responsive curricula, relevant programs, and real-world learning experiences (including apprenticeships and internships). I appreciate the experiment to lower the overall costs, but like so many other “innovations,” it’s playing at the fringes. It’s really the same old, same old — just on a shorter time frame.
At current prices, families are FORCED to consider employment prospects. They are demanding a ROI, because they have to.
I was at a meeting earlier this year with other parents and family members who were interested in a particular program at a Michigan-based university. One set of parents really wanted to know if their student would be getting a good job coming out of the program. They didn’t want to take a second mortgage out if the investment wasn’t going to pay off.
Also see:
On 04/14/2026,
in 21st century, business side of he, change, colleges, faculty/staff, funding / grants, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, generational differences, higher education, parents/guardians, student-related, surviving, United States, universities,
by Daniel Christian
More than a quarter of private colleges are at risk of closing, new projection shows — from hechingerreport.org by Jon Marcus
As one Vermont college finishes its last semester, an estimated 442 others may be in trouble
A new estimate projects that 442 of the nation’s 1,700 private, nonprofit four-year colleges and universities, with a combined 670,000 students, are at risk of closing or having to merge within the next 10 years.
More than 120 institutions are at the very highest risk, according to the forecast, by Huron Consulting Group, which analyzed enrollment trends, tuition revenue, assets, debt, cash on hand and other measures. Many are, like Sterling, small and rural.
“We have too many seats. We have too many classrooms,” said Peter Stokes, a managing director at Huron. “So over the coming five to 10 years, this shakeout is going to take place.”
On 03/14/2026,
in Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, Bias | Diversity Equity & Inclusion (DE&I), bots, business side of he, change, changing business models, colleges, community colleges, cost of getting a degree, faculty/staff, funding / grants, future of higher education, game-changing environment, health, higher education, innovation, leadership, learning ecosystem, legislatures / government / legal, liberal arts, policy, reinvent, skills, society, staying relevant, strategy, student-related, surviving, teaching & learning, trends, United States, universities, vendors,
by Daniel Christian
2026 Survey of College and University Presidents — from insidehighered.com, Liaison, & Jenzabar
Download and explore exclusive insights from the 2026 Survey of College and University Presidents to see how these campus leaders are responding to financial volatility, political interference, rapid advances in AI, and where they believe the biggest risks and opportunities lie as they look toward 2030.
In this year’s survey, presidents share perspectives on:
- How presidents assess the second Trump administration’s impact on higher education
- Which emerging or evolving educational models they plan to add or expand in the coming years
- How effective they believe higher education has been in shaping national conversations arout AI
- The issues presidents expect will have the greatest impact on higher education by 2030
On 11/07/2025,
in communications, funding / grants, journalism, legislatures / government / legal, United States, universities, writing,
by Daniel Christian
News deserts hit new high and 50 million have limited access to local news, study finds — from medill.northwestern.edu
Federal funding cuts to public broadcasting may accelerate local news crisis
EVANSTON, ILL. — The number of local news deserts in the U.S. jumped to record levels this year as newspaper closures continued unabated, and funding cuts to public radio could worsen the problem in coming months, according to the Medill State of Local News Report 2025 released today.
While the local news crisis deepened overall, Medill researchers found cause for optimism — more than 300 local news startups have launched over the past five years, 80% of which were digital-only outlets.
For the fourth consecutive year, the Medill Local News Initiative at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications conducted a months-long, county-by-county survey of local news organizations to identify trends in the rapidly morphing local media landscape. Researchers looked at local newspapers, digital-only sites, ethnic media and public broadcasters.
How Local Newsrooms Are Rethinking Political Coverage — from adigaskell.org
For decades, election reporting in the U.S. has leaned heavily on the “horse race”—who’s up, who’s down, and who’s raising the most money. But new research from the University of Kansas suggests that this approach is starting to shift, thanks to a national training program aimed at helping journalists better engage with their communities.
The program, called Democracy SOS, encourages reporters to move beyond headline polls and campaign drama. Instead, it asks them to focus on the issues people care about and explain how those issues are being tackled. In other words: less spectacle, more substance.
Addendum on 11/13/25:
Why Losing Local Newspapers Costs More Than We Think — from adigaskell.org
So why can’t digital journalism fill the gap?
The researchers argue that online media isn’t a true replacement for local reporting. “If you’re in New York writing about San Francisco, you just don’t know the area,” they say. “You don’t have the context. You’re not there.”
Even local online reporters face pressure to chase clicks. “Every journalist now has a global audience,” they explain. “That means the stories that matter most—ones that require digging, patience, and a deep knowledge of the community—often get ignored.”
The takeaway: local newspapers may seem like an old-fashioned idea, but they play a key role in how communities function. And when they vanish, the costs go beyond the news.
On 10/27/2025,
in 21st century, business side of he, career development, change, changing business models, colleges, community colleges, credentialing, digital learning, face-to-face, faculty/staff, funding / grants, game-changing environment, higher education, ideas, leadership, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, learning spaces, online learning, strategy, teaching & learning, United States, universities, vocational / trades,
by Daniel Christian
Ground-level Impacts of the Changing Landscape of Higher Education — from onedtech.philhillaa.com by Glenda Morgan; emphasis DSC
Evidence from the Virginia Community College System
In that spirit, in this post I examine a report from Virginia’s Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission (JLARC) on Virginia’s Community Colleges and the changing higher-education landscape. The report offers a rich view of how several major issues are evolving at the institutional level over time, an instructive case study in big changes and their implications.
Its empirical depth also prompts broader questions we should ask across higher education.
- What does the shift toward career education and short-term training mean for institutional costs and funding?
- How do we deliver effective student supports as enrollment moves online?
- As demand shifts away from on-campus learning, do physical campuses need to get smaller?
- Are we seeing a generalizable movement from academic programs to CTE to short-term options? If so, what does that imply for how community colleges are staffed and funded?
- As online learning becomes a larger, permanent share of enrollment, do student services need a true bimodal redesign, built to serve both online and on-campus students effectively? Evidence suggests this urgent question is not being addressed, especially in cash-strapped community colleges.
- As online learning grows, what happens to physical campuses? Improving space utilization likely means downsizing, which carries other implications. Campuses are community anchors, even for online students—so finding the right balance deserves serious debate.
On 10/27/2025,
in colleges, community colleges, curriculum, faculty/staff, funding / grants, future of higher education, higher education, learning ecosystem, legislatures / government / legal, policy, political science, research, society, United States, universities, vendors,
by Daniel Christian
70% of Americans say feds shouldn’t control admissions, curriculum — from highereddive.com by Natalie Schwartz
The Public Religion Research Institute poll comes as the Trump administration is pressuring colleges to change their policies.
Dive Brief:
- Most polled Americans, 70%, disagreed that the federal government should control “admissions, faculty hiring, and curriculum at U.S. colleges and universities to ensure they do not teach inappropriate material,” according to a survey released Wednesday by the Public Religion Research Institute.
- The majority of Americans across political parties — 84% of Democrats, 75% of independents and 58% of Republicans — disagreed with federal control over these elements of college operations.
- The poll’s results come as the Trump administration seeks to exert control over college workings, including in its recent offer of priority for federal research funding in exchange for making sweeping policy changes aligned with the government’s priorities.
Also see:
- ‘Nothing less than government control’: Higher ed responds to Trump’s compact — from highereddive.com by Ben Unglesbee
Federal officials offered preferential funding treatment to nine initial colleges in exchange for sweeping changes. Here’s how they replied.
On 10/23/2025,
in business side of he, colleges, community colleges, cost of getting a degree, funding / grants, higher education, parents/guardians, student-related, surviving, trends, United States, universities, youth,
by Daniel Christian
New Analysis: Affordability Gaps Remain in Great Lakes States — from ncan.org by Louisa Woodhouse
Key Takeaways
- In every Great Lakes state except Illinois and Minnesota, students face affordability gaps greater than the national average of $1,555.
- Five out of six Great Lakes states have a smaller percentage of affordable public bachelor’s-granting institutions than the national average of 35% of postsecondary institutions.
- In two states (Ohio and Wisconsin), the affordability gap for students at public bachelor’s-granting institutions is more than twice the national average.
- Still, a subset of states have committed to making community college more affordable. In Ohio, Indiana, and Michigan there is no affordability gap, on average, for students to attend community college.