Berkeley, May 4, 2026 – Community college students who receive CalFresh during their first year of college are more likely to stay on track academically and return for a second year, according to a new working paper from the California Policy Lab and the Center for Studies in Higher Education.
The research finds that students who maintained CalFresh benefits throughout their first year were more likely to complete a full-time course load (30 or more credits) and more likely to enroll...
Nearly half of California community college students report struggling with food insecurity. SNAP food benefits (known as CalFresh in California) can help reduce student hunger. Alleviating hunger among students should lead to improved educational outcomes, but rigorous research on this topic remains scarce. Our recent study (The Impact of Nutrition Assistance on College Student Success) helps to close that gap, using a compelling matching design with...
Ivy Chen is an undergraduate research assistant for Professor Zachary Bleemer at Princeton University in the Industrial Relations Section. She is pursuing a B.A. in Economics on the mathematics-track with minors in Statistics and Machine Learning as well as English. Her research interests include the economics of higher education and the labor market impacts of reproductive healthcare access.
The Academic Kitchen tells the story of the evolution of an all-women's department, the Department of Home Economics, at the University of California, Berkeley from 1905 to 1954. The book's unique focus on the connection between gender and the status of a particular academic department challenges organizational theorists and higher education specialists to reconsider their traditional analysis of academic departments. By incorporating gender in the analysis, Nerad reveals the process by which departments traditionally dominated by women, including education, library science, nursing...
Jesse Rothstein recently shared critical insights into university financial operations during an interview with Julia Barajas from LAist, Southern California Public Radio's digital news and culture platform.
In this timely discussion, Rothstein clarified how college budgets function, underscored the vital importance of research grants, and addressed the significant financial challenges universities are currently navigating under the present administration.
Politics, economics, and technology have conspired to make this an exceptionally challenging time for American higher education. Some critics claim that costs are out of control in traditional public and private nonprofit higher education. They believe these institutions will soon go the way of the railroads as for-profit institutions displace them and the Internet replaces college campuses and classrooms. Other critics bemoan the privatization of higher education and the increasing role of market forces. Still others think higher education has lost its way and fails to focus on...
