The article goes on to talk about the rising number of students whose personal circumstances often leave them with very little margin for error or unexpected crisis. The young man in the article was quoted as saying, "I've seen other students drop out, not because they can't affor tuition, but they can't afford the other costs of coming to college - rent, health insurance, transportation." The young man in the article got financial help from his community colleges' foundation who was recieving funds from the Dreamkeepers and Angel Fund program - a Lumina Foundation project.
The Dreamkeepers and Angel Fund program provided emergency financial aid to students at 37 community colleges. The Dreamkeepers program provided emergency aid to 11 Achieving the Dream community colleges and the Angel Fund provided funds to 26 Tribal Colleges and Universities. The two programs had three overarching goals:
- to develop infrastructures at participating colleges for delivering emergency financial aid;
- to learn whether the students who receive such aid stay enrolled in college; and
- to promote long-term sustainability of the emergency aid programs.
You can see a summary of the final report on these two project, which wrapped up in 2008, here.
The notion of emergency financial aid was only one of the strategies the article outlined as community colleges, in particular, deal with increasing numbers of students who are running into challenges that have the ability to derail students from achieving their goal of earning a degree. Other strategies institutions are engaging in are more robust early alert systems that are seeking to detect when students are at risk for non-academic issues, case management approaches to serving students and developing equipment loan programs (laptops, calculators etc.)
Others have blogged about similar issues in higher education and at what point we as student affairs professionals become social workers and is that really our role. Throughout this class and in my work at a community college I really do have to wonder, not about whether this is our role or not but, whether we are seeing a shift in our profession. Have the changing needs of students and the economic situation begun changing what it means to be student affairs practioners?
I'm going to argue that, yes, in order to be responsive to our students needs and ultimately do our part in helping students get to graduation that we must reconsider our role. I'm not arguing that in the end higher education can or should be all things to all people but that we must consider who is coming through our doors and respond to the changing needs of todays students.
Years ago when I was working with our TRiO program (serving first generation and low income college students) I returned from a meeting to find that our staff had decided the best course of action for a young woman we had all been working with was for her to leave an abusive boyfriend, take her 1 year old and move in with one of our staff advisors. I'm using this example to highlight what I believe to be the extreme and am not making an argument that we in student affairs should be considering blurring the boundaries to this extent. In the end the young woman did not move in with our advisor but instead we all worked diligently to help her identify community resources and get connected to those resources. This is I believe is where being responsive to student needs in order to help them refocus their energies on being a college student is part of our changing role in higher education.
I wonder what your institutions have done to support students - ours for example has started a foodbank to support the many students and families who struggle each week to have enough to eat.
Libby, I found the information provided in your post to be an exciting prospect for the community college where I work. But, after exploring their website and the guidelines to for apply for the Lumina Foundation grants I realized that to receive a grant unsolicited was a long shot. In addition, part of the grant requirements include coming up with funding after the grant has ended in order to sustain the programs implemented as result of the grant.
ReplyDeleteSadly, I have been shot down by the administration of my institution to do something as simple as a food pantry, so the chances of garnering upper management's support for a grant such as this is probably slim to none. The attitude of administration at my institution is one of an ostrich. If they cannot see it, it does not exist and they are reticent to provide any support or resources that are purely academic in nature.
By the way, I applaud your accomplishment of establishing a food bank for struggling students. And, I am not ashamed to admit that I am a tinge envious of the support of your administration. http://www.luminafoundation.org/grants.html
Libby, as ever, you present a well written blog! :)
ReplyDeleteI appreciate what you have written here especially because earlier today I listened to the Keynote Speaker at the National Council on Student Development National Conference talk about how the graduation rate at community colleges is 12 percent.
I feel new to the Community College setting (since I just started in July of 2011). But the issues surrounding completion rates are overwhelming. It feels insurmountable sometimes. What I have learned so far is that we can only do what is in front of us. My office at CCD has a food bank as you speak of, as well as a lending library for textbooks for students who cannot afford to purchase them. I am hoping that these measures will somehow help the students we serve become part of that small percentage that gets to their goal of completion.