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We're covering higher education and diverse communities across Texas. Sign up for updates:
By placing more reporters on the beat in more places, Open Campus Texas will deepen coverage of this vital topic and connect the dots across the state.
Three of our reporters are finalists for beat-reporting awards from the Education Writers Association! Congrats to Charlotte West, our staff reporter covering higher ed in prisons; Kate McGee, our reporter at The Texas Tribune; and Molly Minta, our reporter at Mississippi Today
The awards recognize the country's best education journalism.
Georgia State University is ending its prison education program, blaming new federal rules related to the return of Pell Grants for incarcerated students.
It's blaming a budget shortfall and federal rules for the return of Pell Grants for the decision.
As many as 700,000 incarcerated students will once again become eligible for federal financial aid as of July, the Education Department estimates.
We're excited to partner with THE CITY NY and North Carolina Public Radio - WUNC to cover higher ed in New York City and North Carolina:
The Open Campus Local Network supports full-time higher education reporting around the country.
We're partnering with four local newsrooms on ambitious, higher ed projects — with support from Ascendium's Education Philanthropy
These collaborations encourage in-depth reporting focused on higher education.
Our reporters around the country have been covering the messy FAFSA rollout and the challenges families are facing in completing the essential financial aid form. This week, one of our reporters in Texas reported on the fact that parents without SSNs actually can't complete the form at all. And the federal government hasn't said when they'll fix the issue:
Parents without a Social Security number still cannot complete the new FAFSA online. The U.S. Education Department has not said when it plans to fix the issue.
We've got big plans for 2024 – doubling our local network, training a new class of HBCU student journalists, and seeding higher ed stories around the country through our Story Fund. We need your support to make those goals happen. https://donorbox.org/open-campus
We've created a new way for local newsrooms around the country to work with us, with support from Ascendium's Education Philanthropy. Newsrooms can pitch us on a one-time, ambitious higher ed story that they'd like to tell with our support.
We'll then give each newsroom $10,000 to defray costs and share our higher ed expertise, editing support, and data analysis.
Pitch us by Jan. 15! Institute for Nonprofit News
We’re a nonprofit newsroom that covers higher ed in partnership with local news outlets around the country. We’ve created a new way for local newsrooms to partner with Open Campus. We’re looking for pitches from news outlets for ambitious, one-time stories on a range of higher education topics...
"Black institutions have the same challenges as white institutions, but with a narrower margin for error."
Our HBCU fellow Tamilore Oshikanlu speaks with Sydney Freeman Jr.:
While presidents nationally are serving shorter terms than ever — 5.9 years on average — frequent changes at the top are disruptive.
While presidents nationally are serving shorter terms than ever — 5.9 years on average — frequent changes at the top are disruptive.
We’re very excited to welcome Kayleigh Skinner as our new managing editor focused on race and equity. For the past several years, Kayleigh’s been the managing editor at Mississippi Today, one of our early partner newsrooms. That means we’ve had the joy of working with her on higher ed coverage since 2021.
Kayleigh’s spent much of her career covering education and politics, including at Mississippi Today, The Hechinger Report, and Chalkbeat Tennessee. Here, she’ll be working across our Local Network alongside Colleen Murphy, seeding, developing, and supporting stories that center on issues of race and equity. Kayleigh also will oversee our HBCU Student Journalism Network at a high level. Her first day will be November 1.
We brought reporters from seven of our partner newsrooms to D.C. this week for two great days of training. Exciting things ahead!
“Are they gonna put a sticky note over your race when they’re reading applications, so they don’t see it?”
How one teen is trying to make sense of the Supreme Court's ban on race-conscious admissions:
As universities adjust to a ban on race-conscious admissions, Chicago area teens try to sort out what the ruling means for them.
We are welcoming six new fellows to the HBCU Student Journalism Network, a part-time paid reporting fellowship for students at historically Black colleges and universities.
Learn more about the fellows and the program:
Six student fellows from historically Black colleges and universities across the country will be part of the fall ‘23 class of the Open Campus HBCU Student Journalism Network.
For first-generation college students in rural Kansas, the road to higher ed isn't an easy one. Read more from our rural reporter, Nick Fouriezos, in this story, co-published today with USA TODAY:
Everything changed for Ashlee Villarreal when she met Evelyn Irigoyen-Aguirre, who is part of the Kansas State Advising Corps.
If you're one of the millions of Floridians with student loan debt, the Tampa Bay Times wants to talk to you:
Have a student debt horror story or happy ending? Be part of our coverage by sharing your student debt experience here.
Experts urge borrowers to plan early for payments that restart in October. There are ways to lower or zero out your monthly payments.
We visited Emma Folts (our higher ed reporter at PublicSource) in Pittsburgh this week, and talked to lots of Pittsburghers about college, perception, and affordability. More details in next week’s Dispatch: https://www.opencampusmedia.org/category/newsletters/weekly-dispatch/
Despite the benefits, there are few college programs in the United States that specifically target Indigenous people in prison.
Windward Community College's Pu‘uhonua program is an exception.
This story was co-published with Honolulu Civil Beat:
Having culturally relevant content makes higher ed more relatable to Indigenous students, encouraging more of them to pursue degrees.
Help us spread the word of the HBCU Student Journalism Network. Applications are due June 1 for this PAID reporting fellowship for HBCU students:
Help us spread the word about this paid reporting fellowship for HBCU students.
Nicholas Cobb graduated from Louisiana Tech in 2022 with a bachelor’s degree in education. As the only Black man in his 72-person program, he found the peer evaluation process to be particularly frustrating.
“Imagine you teach a lesson to fake students — student teachers — who are white, and the feedback that you get isn’t pertaining to what you taught, it is pertaining to the way you talk,” he said.
The critiques “failed to realize this is the way I connect with African American kids,” he said.
In Louisiana, just 5% of teachers are Black men — something the state’s education commissioner has said is a major concern. The profession is very white nationally, too.
THI and Open Campus are offering an opportunity for a motivated undergraduate student to serve as a Public Fellow at Open Campus for Summer 2023, with the option to continue in the position during the 2023-2024 academic year. Applicants must be declared majors/minors in the Humanities Division at UCSC. Applications due May 22nd. Learn more at https://thi.ucsc.edu/cfa-thi-summer-undergraduate-public-fellowship-with-open-campus/
We spent a few days in Cleveland visiting our partner Signal Cleveland — learn more about our trip:
Plus, our prisons reporter speaks to a psychologist about trauma and the potentially healing role of education. And, catch up on the latest reporting from our HBCU fellows and Local Reporting Network. Last week we visited Cleveland with Amy Morona, our higher ed reporter at Signal Cleveland. We
Morehouse College students and alumni say the college is becoming more inclusive. The campus's q***r students now “have more freedom and ability to do and be who they are," one alumnus said.
This is the latest from our HBCU Student Journalism Network — co-published with Capital B Atlanta.
The HBCU is shifting away from traditional definitions of masculinity and embracing a more expansive, inclusive view.
“HBCUs do a great job at welcoming students whose paths may not have been linear."
Read the latest from our HBCU Student Journalism Network, co-published with Capital B:
About 110,000 Black women with some college credits but no degree returned to college in 2020, nearly double the number of Black men.
A new voter ID law in Ohio poses problems for college students, writes Amy Morona, our higher ed reporter at Signal Cleveland
House Bill 458 is slated to go into effect next month.
When WVU Tech relocated, the small town of Montgomery lost local businesses, many well-paid professionals, and hundreds of students renters.
Later this month, we're hosting an online discussion about the return of Pell to prisons. Register here to join us Feb. 28: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZAlcuGhqDsvGdJqkHcrjAdDc-FYkq6_yfZD
COVID-19 defined the high school experiences of many students entering college this fall. "I went from 16 to 18 in a blur," says one freshman.
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