Higher Learning Advocates staff are weighing in after President Biden delivered his State of the Union address to America Tuesday night. Here’s our analysis of both highlights — and missed opportunities — related to supporting today’s students. Julie Peller, executive director The president talked about critical domestic policy issues, including…

By Noah Widmann I will never forget my first day of college: the new people, the expensive textbooks, and receiving the news I was going to be a father. Before I could even set foot in my classes, I immediately withdrew from all of them, forfeiting a full-ride wrestling scholarship…

The COVID-19 pandemic taught us many lessons about what types of support services students need to succeed in higher education. And as the pandemic persists, HLA is listening to the challenges students face, elevating their voices, and learning from the student experience to advance practical policy solutions. …

Beginning on May 12, the over 7 million students who receive Pell Grants can begin to sign up on GetEmergencyBroadband.org to receive a $50 per month subsidy to help pay for internet at home, and up to $100 for a connected device. Since the pandemic began, the existing digital divide…

By: Kim Dancy, Alyse Gray Parker, and Nikhil Vashee Reliance on the internet and related technology has been steadily increasing since the service first entered our lives in 1993. But the need has never been more intense than what we are experiencing now. In the midst of a health pandemic…

By: Emily Bouck West As we near the holiday season and the start of 2021 — a new year, with a new administration and Congress — Higher Learning Advocates is reflecting on our wish list. We’ve identified five key federal policy fixes that, if implemented, could change today’s students’ lives…

By Julie Peller and Edward Conroy Imagine you’re a college student. You moved to campus for fall semester earlier this fall. It was a financial struggle to ensure you have everything you need, but your part-time job will help to make ends meet. You are nervous about COVID-19 and excited…

By: Nia Ariel Davis Sigona, Government Relations Director, Higher Learning Advocates When college campuses closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, college students lost more than access to lecture halls and student unions; they lost connectivity to the internet for their learning. The sudden shift to online learning has highlighted the…

Kyle Southern, Ph.D. and Nia Davis Sigona, Esq. Across the country, students, college campus leaders, and policymakers alike face challenges as a result of the coronavirus pandemic — the necessary and abrupt disruption in higher education among them. Long before these campus closures and shifts to online learning, however, college…