Many colleges and universities lack adequate supports and policies for the estimated 20% of their students who are parents and who face the additional pandemic-related challenges, including financial strain, remote learning for themselves and their school-age children along with other concerns. "It feels like I have to make a choice between finishing my program and being a parent," doctoral student Erin Palmer said.

College students worldwide are pushing back against increasing requirements to install proctoring software as institutions work to ensure fair assessments and reduce the risk of cheating during remote learning. At the City University of New York, students gathered 27,000 signatures for a petition that led to the removal of requirement that students use such software.

Newspaper reports identified Richard Blum -- a $15 million donor to the University of California at Berkeley and husband of U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif. -- as the author of a letter of recommendation for a waitlisted student that reportedly violated a University of California Board of Regents admissions policy and that was part of a state audit of admissions at some campuses of the university system. Blum apologized for being unaware of the policy, while others are called for fewer back doors to college admissions, especially at taxpayer-funded institutions.

A Duke University building first opened before the school opened its doors to Black people is being renamed for Wilhelmina Reuben-Cooke, one of the first five Black students to enroll in 1963. Part of a larger effort to "honor key contributors to the university who have been overlooked," the move marks the first time a Duke building has been named after a Black woman, the university said.

A letter sent to the US House of Representatives by the American Council of Education and other higher-ed groups asserts that the cost of the coronavirus pandemic to US colleges and universities will exceed the $120 billion originally estimated, writes Michael Nietzel, president emeritus of Missouri State University. The groups are requesting federal assistance to address the budget crisis, which Nietzel says "will be felt for years to come."

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has awarded Rutgers University a $15 million grant to establish the Institute for the Study of Global Racial Justice. Rutgers President Jonathan Holloway says the center will study racial justice and policy reform with a focus on education.