Amy Morona

Every day Mary Stone finds herself face-to-face with an enemy. It’s a massive eyesore, a hodgepodge of sand, rocks, concrete and garbage in her University Park neighborhood. So notorious is the foe that it’s simply known by three words: The Dirt Pile.

Lots of attention is typically showered on the bookends of a college experience: students’ first and last years on campus. But what about that time in the middle?

Stanley Miller grew up about 10 minutes away from Case Western Reserve University. But the college was far from a fixture of his childhood. “You knew when you were growing up, you weren’t welcome on this campus,” the now 73-year-old said.

The country’s student loan debt crisis earns a lot of attention. But there’s also another type of college bill that can get in the way. About 222,000 people have unpaid bills totaling $556 million to colleges across the state for things such as unpaid tuition, parking tickets, library fines, or other outstanding fees or charges, according to an October 2020 report from education consulting company Ithaka S+R.

For many years, Eric Green’s family vacations kicked off a routine. Arrive at the hotel, jump in the elevator, go to the room, turn around, leave again. Back in the hallway, he’d instruct his daughter and son, young at that time, to look for the stairwells. They needed to know where the emergency exits were located before the fun began. After all, he said, it’s good to have a plan. You never know when you’ll need it. That still rings true for Green, 50, today. In fact, it’s part of his job. H

Roughly 17,500 students enrolled at the University of Chicago this past fall. Eight hundred and twenty eight of that group, just 4.7% of its total population, are Black, including Claire Shackleford. The 21-year-old detailed an experience where required reading lists lean heavily into works by white male authors. There are fewer professors of color, so students instead befriend Black cafeteria workers or custodians for support. It’s common, she said, to be the only Black student in a classroom.

Another semester at Cleveland State was winding down for the executive director of the university’s career services office. Her team’s calendars were packed with more virtual office hours and weekly events with employers. Some staff had Google phone numbers, allowing students to text or call them directly. “We really had turned ourselves inside out to make sure we were just absolutely, completely available to students,” she said. “But it was almost too much.” College career services profession

As Ashland University’s traditional enrollment has decreased, the number of students in its prison education program has been on a steady rise. Kristen Haley Theriot made her first and only visit to the campus of Ashland University in December 2018. She left with a purple blanket, a portfolio with the school’s logo and an associate’s degree. The 33-year-old’s classes were completed far from the small campus, though. Theriot took them from a Louisiana prison, where she was serving time for arme

Baldwin Wallace University‘s counseling center added a new line to the paperwork students are tasked with filling out ahead of their initial sessions this year, asking students how COVID-19 has impacted them. Nearly 75% of the students completing the forms noted the pandemic has negatively impacted their mental health, said the university’s counseling center director, Sophia Kallergis. Students also reported feeling like they’ve missed experiences, are more isolated, or that their academics hav