Confession: I almost failed out of my first year of college.
I grew up in Southern California, and there were nearly 1,000 students in my high school grade. I excelled academically, was an athlete, and had multiple co-curricular activities. But when it came time to apply to college… 1.) I didn’t know where to start; 2.) my writing composition was subpar and less than compelling by collegiate academic standards; and 3.) even in 2005, applications were not financially feasible for me.
Eventually I opted to attend a California State University—a fiscally viable option with one of the most diverse student bodies in the country. Within my first semester I realized that I did not have the academic skills to be successful as a student. The university was difficult to navigate, and I didn’t see myself thriving… until I met an administrator willing to “meet me where I was at” and guide me through policies, resources, and student-focused activities and resources to help me feel a sense of belonging. This gentle connection and individualized support made a difference in my decision to continue to pursue my bachelor’s degree.
Fifteen years later, I have two postsecondary degrees and have been an administrator at multiple universities. Although I wasn’t a college-ready student, this former supervisor demonstrated tactics to help the university become a more student-ready college. The support, fostering, and challenging of my identity development outside of the classroom education that enhanced my studies, as well as the practical life skills this administrator helped me hone, were key to my own increase of cultural and social capital.
Although this administrator was key to my retention in my education, it is clear that the university systems were not ready for my presence. What would happen if we could reimagine and recalibrate our university systems, processes, and resources to be more accessible with/for students (especially those who have pre-existing trauma, impacted by COVID-19, and/or have continued disparate impact from coloniality and white supremacy culture)?
With that said, what can we do to shift universities to become more student ready? Here are some tools/tips to help us reflect on creating more student-centered and ready systems for our communities.
What We Can Do to Make Colleges More Student-Ready:
- First of all, learn and better understand the colonial hxstories of the U.S. educational system. This sets the landscape of postsecondary education as an exclusionary system with/for people with multiple marginalized identities. What is your individual social identity relationship to these systems? How does your positionality impact how you navigate these systems? How does your privilege and power impact how you support students and new professionals?
- Explore the student and staff demographics. What are specific cultural and identity-based resources and practices needed to help people be successful in their everyday lives? Consider a way to gather feedback from the communities you serve via a needs assessment, focus groups, etc. You can only meet students and staff where they are located—but first, you need to locate them and build trust. “One size does not fit all” applies in this context.
- Explore student schedules via class/academic courses. Identify dates/times/locations based on academic and employment schedules for students to be able to provide resources based on when the people you serve are actually available. If our schedules are based simply on capitalist understandings of our workday, we lose the ability to connect with the people who might need our services the most.
- Create a culturally specific resource and programs list based on what students need. Do you have a list for students to access if/when they need or want to feel a sense of belonging? Are your events accessible via major transportation lines? Are you implementing universal design practices to make the spaces/places (physical or virtual) more accessible for all? If you don’t know the answer to questions, do you have a shorthand list of colleagues who might be able to support you and the students you work with?
- Intrusive wrap-around student advising and support must be implemented and trauma-informed. Part of being trauma-informed is being more aware of one’s own trauma, learned behaviors, attachments, and more. As staff and faculty, we must know what we are able to address ourselves and when we need our peers and community members to “tap in.” Before a university can be completely student-ready, the practitioners must also be ready in their own practice.
- Lastly, who do your policies and processes serve? Are they more difficult to navigate than necessary? Setting expectations and learning experiences with/for students at the center means reviewing policies and protocols that can be sustainable and shifted based on ways to be more inclusive with/for students and staff.
I hope that you all can start the process of exploring ways to be more student-ready as we embark on a summer of transformation.
In solidarity,
hc lou (she/her/hers)
Resources:
- Student ready colleges v. College ready students
- The myth of the college ready student
- Higher ed leaders discuss college readiness in the wake of COVID-19
See also:
- 2021 College Freshmen: How They’re Different & How We Can Support Them
- FREE Webinar: Who Are We Missing? Diversity Audits to Assess Academic Library Collections:
- Session One: The Diversity Audit: Planning & Processes
FREE Webinar: Don’t Believe the Hype: Educating Beyond DEI Through Justice and to Healing
