Latest news with #affirmativeaction
Forbes
a day ago
- Politics
- Forbes
Scholarship Displacement Robs Students Of Much-Needed Financial Aid
CHAPEL HILL, NORTH CAROLINA - JUNE 29: People walk on the campus of the University of North Carolina ... More Chapel Hill on June 29, 2023 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that race-conscious admission policies used by Harvard and the University of North Carolina violate the Constitution, bringing an end to affirmative action in higher education. (Photo by) When it comes to paying for college, common wisdom says to apply for as much financial aid as you possibly can. This includes scholarships and grants that come from institutions and government agencies, and private scholarships, too. Unfortunately, colleges and universities have policies that can rob students of aid they may have spent weeks or months pursuing on their own. They do this through something called "scholarship displacement," which reduces aid awards based on outside scholarships a student receives. To understand scholarship displacement, education attorney Dr. Gregory J. Vincent of Vincent Strategies says to imagine a student from a low-income household is awarded a $5,000 local scholarship. "The family is excited because they think this means a lighter financial burden," says Vincent. 'But when they submit it to the school, the institution reduces its own $5,000 grant by the same amount.' This means the net benefit of the scholarship to the family is zero, even if the student earned it based on their grades, an essay, membership in certain organizations or something else. Is Scholarship Displacement Wrong? Using outside scholarships as an excuse to reduce need-based aid for students may not be illegal, but most experts agree it's unethical. Higher education consultant Tom O'Hare of Get College Going says that, at the very least, the practice nullifies the hard work a student and their family will spend searching for and applying for scholarships. Not only that, but scholarship displacement typically takes place late in the enrollment process and after students have already committed to a school. This means it can place students and their families in a financial bind after it's too late to pick a different school or program. Danilo Umali of Game Theory College Planners says he has been helping his clients fight scholarship displacement for well over a decade, and that he considers the practice a type of "resource discrimination." Umali says that families who put significant effort into pursuing outside scholarships could even wind up paying more for college in the end since reduced aid offers can stick through four years of college even if the displaced scholarship was only offered for one year. He also estimates that families who are unaware of financial aid displacement could easily lose $10,000 to $30,000 from a single college offer. With higher education costs on the rise and cumulative student loan debt reaching more than $1.7 trillion nationally, it's a shame that colleges and universities are still using this practice — legal or not. How To Fight Scholarship Displacement While most would agree that scholarship displacement is a pretty bad concept, you don't have to blindly accept what your college says. There are steps you can take to fight against this practice or get the decision reversed. If you earn a scholarship from a third party organization and you're worried about scholarship displacement, you can ask them to pay you the scholarship funds directly instead of sending the money to your school. James Lewis of the National Society of High School Scholars (NSHSS) says they may also be willing to pay the scholarship into a 529 college savings account if you have one. That way, you can use the funds for room and board, tuition, textbooks, and other higher education expenses without getting the school involved. "This preserves a student's autonomy over how the funds are used while maintaining eligibility for need-based financial aid," he says. John Morganelli of Ivy Tutors Network says being a "squeaky wheel" may be enough to get your school to change course when it comes to scholarship displacement. "Schools are far more likely to make exceptions for families that speak up," he says. If aid has been reduced or displaced, pushing back, either through a formal merit appeal or an informal aid conversation, can prompt the school to reconsider. Vincent adds that students and their families should ask specific questions of the college's financial aid office about how outside scholarships are treated. Families should also request a copy of the school's displacement policy in writing, he said. Brian Safdari of College Planning Experts also says families can appeal to the university through a process many parents do not know about. This can begin a negotiation that could lead to scholarship displacement being reversed, more aid being offered and a better deal for the student overall. "If you know how to appeal or negotiate and have the right leveraging strategies, you can get the grants reinstated," he says. To appeal a financial aid offer through your school, you should reach out to the university's financial aid office to inquire. If you're worried about putting a ton of work into earning scholarships you never actually benefit from, you may want to go a different route altogether. Umali says that the best way to avoid displacement is to focus all of your efforts on obtaining grants and discounts directly from the college. Why? Because many "outside" scholarships are time consuming, overly competitive, and tend to involve smaller dollar amounts. By focusing on grants and discounts from the college instead, you can potentially obtain $25,000 to $45,000 a year from a single college. "That dwarfs the amounts you would typically see from an outside source," says Umali. "Plus, these college offers are good for all four years the student is in attendance." The Bottom Line While many people have never even heard of scholarship displacement, this sneaky problem can rob parents and students of outside scholarships they worked hard to find, apply for and earn. Unfortunately, this practice is used by all kinds of colleges and universities around the country, although some states have banned scholarship displacement or have laws that limit its use. If you want to actually benefit from outside scholarships, knowing how scholarship displacement works and how to spot it is your best first step. And if you find a school is limiting your aid because of scholarships from third parties, complaining loudly, filing an appeal, or both could work in your favor.
Forbes
11-06-2025
- Forbes
Students Are Already Using AI. Are Colleges Teaching AI Literacy?
CHAPEL HILL, NORTH CAROLINA - JUNE 29: People walk on the campus of the University of North Carolina ... More Chapel Hill on June 29, 2023 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that race-conscious admission policies used by Harvard and the University of North Carolina violate the Constitution, bringing an end to affirmative action in higher education. (Photo by) While students are turning to AI in droves, colleges are behind the adoption curve. A June 2025 study published in TechTrends found that over 85% of college students have already integrated generative AI into their academic lives. However, most (80%) have no structured support in how to use it well, and 70% are asking for AI use guidance. We're at a pivotal moment. Higher education must shift from policing AI to preparing students for it. The old playbook—banning tools, rewriting honor codes, treating generative AI as a threat to academic integrity—misses the larger opportunity. Students are not waiting for a syllabus update to experiment with AI. What they need now is intentional, ethical guidance: how to use AI to think more critically, write more clearly, and engage more deeply. Without this support, we risk reinforcing educational inequities and sending graduates into an AI-driven world unprepared to question, interpret, or lead. Let's start by clearing up a common misconception: Students aren't just using AI to cut corners. The TechTrends study highlighted that many are using AI to ask better questions, not just find better answers. In fact, 52% reported using it to clarify complex material, 38% for technical documentation, and 29% for self-assessment. What they valued most wasn't convenience; it was the nonjudgmental, on-demand nature of the tool. This aligns with the findings of Acuity's Asking to Learn study, which analyzed how students engage with AI when prompted to use it to improve their learning. In this qualitative research, students described AI tools as 'mirrors' and 'mentors' to explore ideas without the fear of looking foolish. The AI's responsiveness made them more willing to take intellectual risks. In other words, many students aren't asking AI to think for them. They're asking it to help them to improve their thinking. But not all students are benefiting equally. The TechTrends study found significant variation in AI readiness across demographic lines. For example, students at community colleges and technical institutions reported the highest levels of AI readiness, while students at for-profit institutions and private colleges felt less confident. Students who were also working full-time expressed the least benefit from AI tools, possibly because they had less time to explore them or viewed them with greater skepticism. Even more concerning: While students are adopting these tools quickly, many don't feel they understand them. A 2024 global survey by the Digital Education Council found that 58% of students felt unprepared for the AI-enabled workforce, and a full 72% said their universities should offer formal training in AI literacy. So what does it mean to be AI literate? It's not just about prompt engineering or knowing which tool gives the fastest response. AI literacy is a multidimensional skill set that blends technical fluency, ethical reasoning, and critical thinking and is for every student in every field. As a college and AI strategist, I see this play out in real time: The students who are best positioned to thrive are not just those who use AI, but those who know when and how to use it responsibly. They treat AI as a tool for amplification; not substitution. Drawing on guidance from the American Library Association's draft AI competencies and UNESCO's AI Competency Framework, it includes: A few colleges are beginning to lead. And California is now requiring AI literacy in K–12 public education; a signal to higher ed about what's coming. But these are exceptional cases. And the danger of doing nothing is very real. Left unguided, students may misuse AI not out of malice, but confusion. We cannot afford to let that confusion define the next generation's relationship to this transformative technology. As educators and leaders, our responsibility isn't to eliminate AI from the classroom. It's to equip students to navigate it wisely, critically, and ethically.
Forbes
08-06-2025
- Politics
- Forbes
What's Harder? Planning Interest Rates, Or Harvard's Class Of 2029?
CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS - JUNE 29: People walk through the gate on Harvard Yard at the Harvard ... More University campus on June 29, 2023 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that race-conscious admission policies used by Harvard and the University of North Carolina violate the Constitution, bringing an end to affirmative action in higher education. (Photo by) Regarding the makeup of Harvard's student body, President Trump thinks 15 percent is a more advisable number than 25 when it comes to international students. Quite reasonably Trump's critics, and surely many who are fans of Trump, are astounded by his conceit. How could the President effectively plan Harvard's student body? Also, since foreign students pay full tuition, it's entirely possible that their payments make it possible for needier Americans to secure spots at Harvard. Or maybe not. What's important with Harvard, and with all schools, is that Presidents, Senators, experts and agitators more broadly should stay out of their admission decisions. And for those who say that Harvard is 'unique' since so many federal dollars flow its way, please stop right there. The thinking is nonsensical. Precisely because the federal government is so large, and for being large operating well beyond its constitutionally limited scope, theoretically nearly every U.S. individual, business and non-profit university is getting something from the government. Let's not expand on the wrong of a federal government lacking boundaries through the excusal of even worse trespasses. Hands off individuals, businesses, and universities. Plus, the arrogance of it all! Harvard is easily one of the most difficult 'fat envelopes' in the world to attain, yet Trump thinks he can plan the class's demographic makeup? That's like the government planning U.S. imports or exports…Oh wait, they sometimes do that. Or try to. Ok, it's like the government attempting to plan the cost of credit to our alleged non-inflationary betterment…Oh wait, they presume to do that too. Interviewed recently by New York Times reporter Colby Smith about the direction of interest rates, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland president Beth Hammack seemingly wrung her hands as she told Smith, 'I legitimately do not know which way this is going to break.' Hammack added that she would 'rather wait and move quickly to play catch up if I really don't know what the right move is. And right now, I really don't know what the right move is based on all of the information and policies that we're responding to.' Some reading the above will conclude that Hammack was being modest, sober in making a difficult assessment about what's ahead, stuff like that. They would conclude incorrectly. The only correct answer from central bankers wouldn't be a professed willingness to delay blind stabs at market intervention, but to instead instruct Smith on the absurdity of the question. Lest everyone forget, people borrow money for what it can be exchanged for. In other words, the cost of credit is the cost of accessing exchange media that can be exchanged not for one market good, but for every market good in the world. Which is a reminder that other than perhaps the dollar that exists as the world's currency, the price of credit is easily the most important price in the world. And exactly because we're all so different now and in the future, there's an interest rate for every single person, business and university in the world, all arrived at through the relentless collision of infinite global inputs every millisecond of every day. Remember this as Hammack and central bankers like her oh so modestly tell Smith 'I legitimately do not know which way [what the Fed will do with 'interest rates'] this is going to break." Wrong answer, and wrong question. Hammack should have replied to Smith that a central banker planning something as complicated as the cost of credit would be as foolhardy as a president planning Harvard's class of 2029, multiplied by many millions.
Forbes
02-06-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Affirmative Action Was Just The Start—Now Racial Progress Is Reversing
The end of affirmative action marked a turning point—but the deeper erosion of racial equity in higher education is just beginning. Among the many threats facing higher education today, the steep declines in Black student enrollment caused by the Supreme Court's 2023 decision to eliminate race-conscious affirmative action continue to be a challenge most competitive universities are struggling to overcome. The alarming decline in Black student enrollment these last two years coupled with the dismantling of support programs, open a veil to what's ahead: a devastating setback in economic mobility and progress for Black communities. The effects of this decision are already being felt. In Fall 2025, Black student enrollment dropped from 9% to 3% at Boston University, 15% to 5% at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), 7% to 3% at Tufts University, and the trend is similar at most top schools around our nation. Diverse perspectives in classrooms and boardrooms aren't just a moral imperative—they are essential for building a workforce prepared to address the rapid evolution and challenges of a global society. Education is a tool many must use to overcome systemic barriers and create generational prosperity for themselves, their families, and their communities. Education drives social, career, and economic mobility. These significant enrollment declines not only jeopardize the future of Black families but also diminish the diversity of our workforce. The U.S. Senate Joint Economic Committee states in a 2022 report that during most of the past 50 years, Black Americans have faced unemployment rates that would be considered recessionary if they applied to the whole population. The SCOTUS ruling threatens to deepen this inequity. The progress made over the past 60 years has suffered a damaging setback, and this is only year one with Fall 2025 quickly approaching. But with mounting pressure from multiple directions, will elite universities rise to the moment or allow progress to slip away?
The Independent
27-05-2025
- Business
- The Independent
Trump plans to cut last $100 million worth of contracts with Harvard and remove all government funding
The Trump administration is directing agencies to consider ending or transitioning about $100 million worth of contracts with Harvard University, effectively severing the remainder of the federal government's financial relationship with the university after months of threatening funding cuts worth billions. In a letter on Tuesday, the administration's General Services Administration recommended that agencies review existing contracts and avoid making new deals with Harvard. The message, obtained by The Independent, accuses the university of a 'deeply troubling pattern' of potential discriminatory hiring, tolerating antisemitism, and continuing to use race-based affirmative action in admissions, despite the Supreme Court striking the practice down in a 2023 ruling. As evidence, the letter points to the addition of a remedial math class for incoming freshmen, claiming the course is among the 'direct results of employment discriminatory factors, instead of merit, in admissions decisions.' (After the 2023 ruling, Black enrollment at Harvard declined from 18 to 14 percent.) The contract review applies to about 30 deals, and critical contracts might not immediately be terminated but rather transitioned elsewhere at an appropriate time, a government official familiar with the letter told The Independent. The Independent has contacted Harvard for comment. The funding review comes after months of tension between the university and the administration, with the White House accusing the Ivy League school of violating civil rights law over its handling of campus antisemitism and pro-Palestine protests, and Harvard arguing the administration is trying to undermine its academic independence. On Monday, President Trump complained that the university had not provided the government information on foreign students the president said were 'radicalized lunatics' and 'troublemakers' who 'should not be let back into our Country.' In a separate post, Trump said he was 'considering taking Three Billion Dollars of Grant Money away from a very antisemitic Harvard' and giving it to trade schools. Last week, the administration attempted to block Harvard's ability to enroll international students, prompting the university to sue. A judge temporarily reinstated the school's ability to enroll such students, and a hearing is scheduled in the case on Thursday. The administration has also threatened to end Harvard's tax-exempt status and has frozen billions in federal funds to the university. Last month, the university sued to restore its funding, rather than agree to a series of sweeping demands from the administration to make changes like cooperating with federal immigration officials, overhauling its admissions policies, and agreeing to a viewpoint diversity audit.
