Two reporters in the Open Campus Local Network are award finalists for their coverage of inequities in higher education.
The Education Writers Association announced the nominations April 2. The annual awards recognize the country’s best education journalism.
Lisa Kurian Philip at WBEZ Chicago was nominated for her reporting on for-profit colleges in the broadcast news category. She and her team at WBEZ explored how students at Illinois for-profit colleges are often worse off than if they had never gone to college at all. They also reported on poor outcomes for students in the state’s cosmetology programs.
The reporting forces the reader “to think about why these institutions continue to exist. The links between vulnerable populations and the scams are inescapable,” judges said.
Molly Minta at Mississippi Today was nominated in the beat-reporting category for coverage that included a feature on the deplorable conditions at some of the state’s community colleges and analysis of a state financial aid program designed to specifically exclude poor students. Minta was also a finalist for the award in 2024.
Minta’s story uncovering a practice of awarding well-connected Mississippi State University students with the best dorms was a favorite among the judges. Minta “scored key records that revealed an inequitable yet largely hidden practice that favors the privileged,” they said.
Kurian Philip and Minta are members of Open Campus’s Local Network, a group of 17 newsrooms where Open Campus has helped put reporters full-time on the higher-ed beat. Reporters in the Local Network are employed at their local newsroom and supported by our team of subject-matter expert editors who provide essential story coaching, editing, and coverage planning.
“Open Campus helped me develop expertise on my beat, particularly when it came to understanding the complexities of state financial aid policies,” Minta said.
Kurian Philip said Open Campus editors helped her team “make sense of really unwieldy data so we could paint a picture for our listeners about how for-profit colleges target students of color and low-income students.”
Open Campus local reporters have been nominated 10 times for EWA awards since 2021. Last year, Kate McGee at our partner The Texas Tribune won a beat-reporting prize.
EWA considered more than 340 awards entries. The winners will be announced in May at the association’s national seminar in St. Louis.
About Open Campus
Open Campus is a nonprofit news organization that ensures communities have the independent information they need about higher ed. By placing expert reporters in local newsrooms across the country, we help people understand and influence the institutions that shape their future opportunities.