Higher education institutions can often serve as sites of growth and possibility. At the same time, trauma in varying forms permeates higher education across institutional types. The authors define trauma as the short- and long-term direct and indirect response to deeply distressing events. Students, faculty, and staff all experience various…

Through the lens of resilience-based student success frameworks, this article aims to illustrate how small-scale individual actions such as early outreach and student advocacy work, can bolster student outcomes and surround first-generation, low income, and underrepresented college students with a community of support.

After reading Chris Lowney's (2003) book, Heroic Leadership, with its concept of "twice born" individuals, the author asked himself what it might mean, as a university administrator, to be "twice born." Yet, he was more curious to consider this concept as a framework for shaping, and perhaps even reshaping, the academy itself.…

Within enrollment management, the word "pipeline" is a metaphor used to describe the structures and procedures of a student's educational journey between two institutions (Pitcher & Shahjahan, 2017). The process of moving through the enrollment pipeline is often facilitated by articulation agreements--documents outlining course…

For years university administrators and faculty have navigated the complex and difficult terrain responding to demands for equity and inclusion from marginalized students. Most recently, the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 responses on communities of color has caused some students to allege the nation's universities did not adequately consider…

Students who are the first in their families to attend college and have Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) status, question whether they will be welcomed, accepted, and safe in their relationships and on campus. Setting the stage for this paper, the authors provide definitional overviews of DACA, first-generation to college status, and…

The Asian American Mentor Program (AAMP) at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), which has been a designated Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institution (AANAPISI) since 2010, is an Asian American, identity-based peer mentor program designed to provide academic and personal support as well as a sense of…

The authors argue that successful "transitions" are inseparable from both "learning" and "becoming." Furthermore, for students to experience successful transitions (and the learning inherent in navigating those transitions) individual educators and institutions more generally need to attend to the issues of…

The authors of this article are both men of color (Chicano and Filipino) and former student affairs educators. For over a year, the authors have been engaged in a multiple case study of five comprehensive state universities that have institutionalized support for men of color. The study sites are all within the same state higher education system,…

The climate for minoritized groups in Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) is exclusionary and hinders their capacity to thrive and earn degrees in STEM disciplines. Most research on and support for programs to diversify technology and STEM fields have focused on strategies in highly selective, well-resourced institutions, which…

Visuals and images are ubiquitous on college campuses and with the lives of students, faculty, and staff. Increasingly students, administrators, and faculty have access to the means of creation, production, and distribution of images. While particular images are crafted by institutions to communicate particular messages, the use of visuals and…

Genia M. Bettencourt's research focuses largely on working-class students rather than first-generation or low-income designations. Having come from a working class background herself, Bettencourt believes that single variables do not capture the full picture of social class. As a child, her social class did not derive merely from the fact that her…

Peter Felten is executive director of the Center for Engaged Learning and assistant provost for teaching and learning at Elon University, where he also serves as a professor of history. Charles C. Schroeder is the past president of ACPA--College Student Educators International and founding coexecutive editor of "About Campus." Felten and…

Community colleges are a 20th-century phenomenon. This sector of higher education started in 1901 and historically served any number of varying purposes, such as teacher training, homemaking, and, potentially, transfer credits for admission to a four-year college and the receipt of a baccalaureate degree. In the early 20th century, because of its…

The author met Jerome when he was a senior in a psychology class taught by the author. He stood out from the rest of the class not only in his academic performance, but also in the ways he approached class--always prepared, asking good questions, going above and beyond in his assignments. He was the dream student--hard working, curious, passionate…