Chapter 3. College: As it Should Be

One of the first steps for all students who are thinking about attending college is to ask themselves why they want to go and what they hope to learn and experience in their four years. In my first-year (freshman) advising seminar class, I often ask students why they are at the University of Virginia (UVA). There are two key words in that question: why and here. I ask, “Why did you choose to attend college and why UVA?” Some answer with, “I want to go to medical school to be a pediatrician,” or “I want to be a lawyer.” While you cannot pursue these careers without an undergraduate degree, these statements do not actually answer the question. Many legacy students reply, “It’s where my parents went” or “It’s where my grandfather went.” These responses make the undergraduate experience simply a means to an end and place the value on the end. Others respond with, “it’s what you do after high school, right?” or “I didn’t know what else to do.”

Sometimes it is clear the student has not selected the right school for their interest, often due to a lack of guidance. Every year I see at least a handful of students who are intent on majoring in something the University of Virginia does not offer or majoring in something the College of Arts & Sciences does not offer. For example, journalism, graphic design, or fashion design. I worked with a student in my school (the College of Arts & Sciences) who insisted she was going to major in nursing. I had to tell her she could not do that in the College of Arts & Sciences. “But it’s why I came here,” she said. She could not seem to understand that she could not do it; she thought I was saying she was not smart enough to do it. I repeated over and over “I am not saying that you cannot or will not be a nurse. I am saying you must be enrolled in the School of Nursing to do that. We do not have a nursing major for you to declare.”

According to an article from Edsights, of those students who attend college, more than 75% do so for one of the following reasons:

• Get a better job
• Learn more about topics of interest
• Receive relevant training
• Earn more money¹

I would also add to this list self-improvement, moving out of poverty, learning something new, and becoming an educated person. In U.S. society college has become a box to check so you can start your career or go on to professional school (see Chapter 2). For some, college is a four-year ordeal that you “have to and get through.” Before college, many students earn dual enrollment credits² in high school and complete a four-year degree in two years or three years. Some states incentivize this by heavily promoting dual enrollment credit at the high school level.

Social norms generally dictate that college students should achieve high grades, build connections, join and lead clubs, study abroad, and pursue other key experiences. The underlying expectation is to check all the right boxes to secure the ideal six-figure job. Students are encouraged to gain admission to the best possible college, major in something “useful” rather than “useless,” and graduate as quickly as possible to save money.

However, for others, college remains a path to gaining knowledge and education, a means to escape poverty, and an opportunity to secure a better job and improve their quality of life. But is this always the case? It is important to emphasize that trade and vocational schools are equally valuable options. Many of these institutions also offer courses in writing, history, math/statistics, humanities, and social sciences, providing students with a well-rounded education.

Students typically earn only one undergraduate degree in their lifetime so they have one chance to be an undergraduate student (students who double major almost always earn just one degree). This means a student should be able to study what they love and take full advantage of as many resources as possible. Because I almost did not get the chance to study what I loved, this point is important to me and something I tell students and their families regularly. I cannot imagine the regret I would have today if I was not able to study and major in archaeology. Also, I have seen the sadness, despair, and frustration on the faces of those students who are forced or required to study something they do not like or enjoy.

How do we get to a place where college is a place to focus on learning, exploring, and innovating? How do we make this ideal possible for all students? And what do we do about meddling parents and guardians? What should college be?

Fundamentally, college should be a place where a student can discover and experience the joy of learning. Unfortunately, there are several factors that make this journey difficult starting with the desire for the best school, the drive for high grades, the mental health issues that emerge in young adults between the ages of 17 to 22, and the relative lack of support for first-generation, low-income, and under-represented students of color and more. College can be harder to navigate for first generation and low-income students and, as more and more students within these categories are admitted, much more support is needed. Admission is just the first step. Getting this group of students, and all students, through to graduation is the hard part. What changes need to be made to reach this goal?

A good starting point is that all schools need to teach what is called the “hidden curriculum.” They need to load up on “just in time” resources for students in the first year of college and then gradually back off so that, by their fourth and final year, students are mostly independent, know that it is okay to ask for help, and know who and where to find that help. College must become more navigable for students who lack “social capital” (more below) and for those who feel they do not or will not belong. This change needs to be accomplished very early on, starting with the orientation programs that a school offers.

Increases in anxiety, depression, and other mental health issues seen in students before and during college also must be addressed. Universities must define what they mean by a “sense of belonging,” the latest trend in making students feel welcomed, and then determine how best to increase this sense. Students need financial security, not only for tuition and fees, but also for food and housing. Much has been written on these topics recently and, in the sections below, I will briefly discuss each of them.

The Hidden Curriculum

Every college publishes general education requirements, major requirements, and graduation requirements—the standard curriculum. Most student information systems have tools that students can use to track their progress in all these areas. In addition to meeting with an advisor, who also relies on these tools, students can view what classes and how many credits they need to take to graduate. What, then, is the hidden curriculum of college?

The hidden curriculum has several definitions according to different higher education settings including the classroom, clubs, one-on-one meetings with people in power, etc. Fulya Kentli’s 2009 article comparing hidden curriculum theories provides ten different definitions.³ Here, I focus on academic settings. Rachel Gable, in her 2021 book, The Hidden Curriculum: First Generation Students at Legacy Universities, writes:

“The title of this book—The Hidden Curriculum—is borrowed from a commonly used phrase among education scholars that describes the tacit rules of educational practice. If you learn those rules well and follow them closely, you will not only succeed in the particular educational context in which you find yourself but you will likely also come to believe in the naturalness, universality, and inevitability of the norms and values these tacit rules uphold.”⁴

The associated footnote states:

“Defined by Philip Jackson in his 1968 Life in Classrooms, the hidden curriculum comprises what Michael Apple in his summation of Jackson calls, ‘the norms and values that are implicitly, but effectively, taught in schools and that are not usually talked about in teachers’ statements of end or goals.'”

The hidden curriculum includes topics that college-educated people and people who work in higher education often take for granted. It is assumed that students will know things like: what a syllabus is and how to read and use it; what college subject codes and course numbers refer to; what majors and minors are; who to ask for help and how to follow through with that request; how to contact faculty via email or phone; and what office hours entail. Many students do not have this a priori knowledge. For example, Anthony Jack⁵ discusses his encounters with students who thought that when faculty talked about office hours, it was the time not to go to their office because they were in their office working. Why would someone unfamiliar with college think otherwise?

In September 2023, I had the chance to meet with Louis Newman to talk about his recent book, Thinking Critically in College: The Essential Handbook for Student Success.⁶ This book is a wonderful resource for any high school student thinking about attending college, or for students already in college trying to find their way. Critical thinking is essential for high school, college, and for life in professional school, graduate school, and/or the work force. This knowledge is something I feel fortunate to have been exposed to in high school as we were posing research questions, forming hypotheses, and writing research papers on a range of topics in almost every class. Very early on in his book, Newman reflects on a conversation with a student in which he told her to ask herself the following question upon receiving a syllabus:

“What are the questions this course is designed to address, and why has the professor chosen to organize the material in this particular way to explore them?”⁷

This question was eye opening for the student who wondered why she had never heard of this idea before. Newman goes on to say, “Learning is all about focusing on the questions, especially the unstated questions, which underlie whatever someone is telling us.”⁸ This note is excellent advice for anyone, and I highly recommend this book to every high school student.

Every college also has their own language that students need to learn. At my university, we never say “campus,” we say Grounds. We never talk about freshmen, sophomores, juniors, or seniors. At UVA, you are a first-year, second-year, third-year, or fourth-year student. Like every other school, there are dozens of acronyms for offices that we assume students will somehow know. Here are just a few that are used daily at UVA:

ISO: International Studies Office
OAAA: Office of African American Affairs
ODOS: Office of the Dean of Students
SFS: Student Financial Services
SDAC: Student Disability Access Center
TA: Teaching Assistant
UCC: University Career Center
UREG: Office of the University Registrar

The offices are just a few of the many key areas that students may need to navigate. Even the College of Arts & Sciences is called “the College.” So if a new student is asked “Are you in the College?”, they often answer yes, even if they are in the School of Nursing or the School of Engineering, because they are in college; they have not yet learned the UVA vernacular.

There is also a dizzying array of acronyms for classes and majors: bio, stats, anthro, psyc, cog sci, comp lit, etc. Many UVA majors with long names use only the acronym such as PST (Political & Social Thought), ETP (Environmental Thought & Practice) or WGS (Women, Gender, & Sexuality). Complicating this shorthand are the many disciplines that students can choose to study, but do not yet know exist. If they heard about them, they may not truly understand what those disciplines are since they did not encounter them in high school (e.g., archaeology, philosophy, cognitive science, linguistics, etc.). History and English in high school are radically different from History and English in college. Imagine how hard this must be for transfer students who may have finally learned the language and hidden curriculum of their first school only to have to start again at their second school.

We assume students know what majors and minors are, how to “declare” them, and how to navigate the requirements. Incoming students often do not know what it means to declare a major; and if they do, they may not know how to do it. Many high school students do not know what this step entails, including those who are not first-generation college students. When and how is this is explained to new students matters and could impact their ability to graduate on time or at all.

Once enrolled in a course, in addition to knowing what a syllabus is, the hidden curriculum also includes knowing how to read a syllabus and track assignments in an organizer (paper or electronic). Time management is an essential skill to being successful in college. As noted above, think of Louis Newman’s conversation with the student and her “light bulb” moment.

The hidden curriculum may also be about all the opportunities a college offers, but that some students never learn about such as career help, study abroad opportunities, internships, work study jobs, research opportunities, etc. It includes knowing how and who to ask for help.

We need to provide easily accessible and visible support for students during their first year, gradually reducing this assistance over time to help them become independent, high-functioning adults by graduation. Many universities address this through “College 101” courses, which are often mandatory for all new students. However, delivering these courses effectively can be challenging, particularly for large incoming classes, due to a shortage of available faculty to teach in a meaningful and pedagogically sound manner. New students often receive an overwhelming amount of information. As a result, students may struggle to recall what they learned early on when they need it later in their academic journey regardless of how it is delivered. Colleges need an array of strategies to help students access the information they need.

When UVA went fully remote because of COVID in March 2020, the notion of the 8-5 workday disappeared. This likely also happened at other schools. The boundaries around workday hours and evenings and the weekend vanished. We were all scrambling to figure things out and everything was new. There was no one to call to ask for advice; for example, “let’s check with the University of X because we know they had to manage this before.” We were all building the plane as we were flying it. Booked until 6? Can we meet at 6:15? Booked from 8-8? Can we meet at 7 AM? I have rarely worked a 40-hour work week; it was always more like 50 to 80 hours a week using the weekends to catch up, but there were some boundaries. No one, except an occasional student, asked to meet with me on a Sunday afternoon. During COVID, those of us on the leadership team were meeting every Sunday afternoon because it was the only time everyone was free. This is not a complaint, but it is what I think helped set the stage for students to expect help later in the evening and on weekends. Many of us were on call for everyone almost 24/7.

On some level, students are right to expect this degree of access. A recent article from Inside Higher Ed by Ashley Mowreader discusses the need to support students outside of the “9 to 5” workday.⁹ During the height of the pandemic, we learned we can work remotely, even if we did not like it. Why not offer help until 9 PM with some limited weekend hours? Why not hire staff who want to work from 12:00-9:00 PM or from 1:00-10:00PM? Mowreader mentions that this generation of students are used to on-demand services.¹⁰ This degree of access need not be our goal but when a student faces a problem on a Friday night at 9:00 PM, is it right that they must wait until 8:00 AM on Monday (or later) for an answer? Of course, we all have to wait sometimes as not all offices are open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, but I think we can do a bit better providing assistance for students beyond the typical 9-to-5 workday.

Social and Cultural Capital

Definitions abound for these terms. On the site Everylearner Everywhere¹¹, Gabe Fink writes that cultural capital is “a form of social currency made up of the values, experiences, knowledge, and behaviors that assist a person in navigating culture. The concept is a way of characterizing non-economic or non-tangible resources that individuals draw on.”¹² A 2022 article from Inside Higher Ed notes that, “A friend refers to [social capital] as the ‘dark matter of opportunity’ because you see its effects, but it can be really hard to spot and measure.”¹³ It goes on to say that “social capital can be a significant factor in college and postcollege success.”¹⁴ MaryBeth Walpole¹⁵, citing James S. Coleman, differentiates between social capital and cultural capital as follows:

Coleman (1988) also uses the term “social capital” but with a very different meaning (Horvat, 2001). To Coleman, social capital is a set of networks that connect families, neighborhoods, schools and communities. Social capital in a Bourdieuian framework is an individual possession that can be converted to social or economic profits depending on the person’s habitus, or strategies for utilizing his or her capital..”¹⁶

R. D. Stanton-Salazar¹⁷ defines social capital as “the value of a relationship that provides support and assistance in a given situation,” as cited in Rozanne Moschetti and Cynthia Hudley.¹⁸ Nan Lin¹⁹ refers to it as “investment and use of embedded resources in social relations for expected returns.”

These definitions have overlapping but subtle differences. For my purposes here, I prefer a combination of these two: a relationship that provides support and assistance in a given situation and the investment and use of embedded resources in social relations for expected returns. Therefore, when I use the term social capital, it is with this definition in mind.

In Susan D’Agostino’s Inside Higher Ed article,²⁰ we find an example of three students all of whom want to work on Wall Street when they finish college. The first student is from rural Nebraska and has never visited or met with anyone from New York City. The second student is from New York City, but knows little of life in the financial district. The third student grew up “on the city’s Upper East Side with parents, grandparents and friends’ parents who worked on Wall Street.”²¹ Who do you think will have the upper edge? It should be clear that it is the last student. The problem we all face in higher education is what to do about this discrepancy. How do we level the playing field around social capital when we have no metrics by which to measure it? Perhaps that is the place to start.

Rozanne Moschetti and Cynthia Hudley²² state that much of the research on social capital has been aimed at understanding how it correlates, or does not, with socioeconomic status. What I see is that continuing generation and/or affluent students typically have a lot of social capital and lower income students, first generation students, and under-represented minority students often have less. This difference is also connected to the hidden curriculum. Students with social capital know how to appeal, advocate, argue, and contact faculty. They go to career centers and look for internships. When they fail, they ask their parents to intervene on their behalf. Those students who lack social capital do not even know that appealing is an option. If they do know, they may not know how to submit an appeal for something or they may feel they should not do so for fear of making someone angry.

Ways to remediate this issue include better student support, better communication, and first-generation student centers with relevant programs and readily available help and support. Processes should be accessible, clear, and easy. Susan D’Agostino’s article referenced above points to a powerful article called “The Missing Metrics” that outlines some of the ways to measure and perhaps help solve the problem.

A Sense of Belonging, Imposter Syndrome, and Loneliness

Many universities focus on fostering a sense of belonging among students, while others address the challenges associated with what is commonly referred to as imposter syndrome. Some institutions are working to tackle both issues simultaneously, recognizing their impact on student well-being and success. Additionally, loneliness is another significant factor affecting students, often intersecting with these challenges. While there is some overlap between the concepts of belonging and imposter syndrome, it is important to note that they are distinct issues, each requiring unique approaches. In this section, I will explore both belonging and imposter syndrome, along with the issue of loneliness, as recent research and a Gallup survey have highlighted connections between feelings of loneliness and a lack of belonging in student populations.

Belonging

The concept of belonging is well defined by Strayhorn²³ who provides the following definition:

“In terms of college, sense of belonging refers to students’ perceived social support on campus, a feeling or sensation of connectedness, and the experience of mattering or feeling cared about, accepted, respected, valued by, and important to the campus community or others on campus such as faculty, staff, and peers.”

Students sometimes report that they do not feel they belong at their home institution. Interestingly, some will report they are happy and connected and that they feel respected, but they do not feel that they belong. According to DeLeon Gray at North Carolina State University, “a sense of belonging at school means feeling a sense of acceptance, respect, inclusion and support in a learning environment.”²⁴ The question I often ask is who bears the responsibility to help students feel like they belong—other students, the faculty and/or the staff? The answer, I believe, is all the above.

It is somewhat of a “no-brainer” to say that students who feel like they belong at their college or university are more likely to do better, stay in school, and graduate. This idea is something most of us can agree on even if it did not impact our own college experience. Think for a moment about a time when you felt like you did not belong, when you felt untethered, on the outside looking in. Maybe it was temporary—the first few days of a new job, the first week being the “new kid” in school, the formal cocktail party where you felt completely out of place. Maybe it lasted a few days or weeks or months. Take that feeling and overlay it with four years of college, or even one. How can a student be successful when they constantly feel like they do not fit in, no matter what the reason?

Data from across the country support this conclusion. The Education Advisory Board (EAB) has an infographic that shows the five components that contribute to a sense of belonging.²⁵ These components are (1) [a] seamless student experience, (2) mental health and wellbeing, (3) active and engaged learning, (4) cocurricular and social engagement, and (5) faculty mentoring and support.²⁶

It is up to all of us with careers in higher education to guarantee that students feel like they belong and are supported. Everyone at a university must play a role in this process. For example, if the faculty help students feel like they belong, a gap will exist if most of the student body is taking off for elaborate vacations during spring break leaving other students behind (Anthony Jack describes this well in The Privileged Poor).²⁷ On the other hand, if the student body is welcoming, diverse, and supportive, it will not be enough if the faculty are not. Belonging must come from everyone.

Jack’s 2019 book illustrates Strayhorn’s definition quite well. One of the ways Jack identifies students is by the categories of Upper Income (UI), the Privileged Poor (PP), and the Doubly Disadvantaged (DD).²⁸ He then adds their ethnicity of White, Black, Latinx, or Asian so students in his book are identified as DDW or PPB.²⁹ UI students come from privileged backgrounds and wealth with all the advantages one needs to succeed (though I would add this does not always guarantee success for other reasons). PP students are low-income students who, through a range of ways, managed to attend elite high schools or elite boarding schools. When this group arrives at college, they are still low-income, but they “know the ropes.” While they may feel left out of some activities, they are not as shocked by the wealth that surrounds them. They also feel more comfortable reaching out to faculty, staff, and administrators for assistance because they had to do those things at their high schools. The Doubly Disadvantaged (DD) students do not have that advantage and they are in a whole new world that is difficult to navigate. They might feel they are imposing on faculty and not go to office hours unless they absolutely must. Making friends is difficult. As mentioned above, Jack describes one student who intentionally avoided office hours thinking they were the time faculty spent in their offices and therefore did not want to be bothered (see the “Hidden Curriculum” section above). Doubly Disadvantaged students do not yet know who to ask for help and they are worried that asking for help is a sign of weakness. Even when some students are told who to talk to and where to go, they do not follow this advice.

Imposter Syndrome

Imposter syndrome, or the imposter phenomenon, is slightly different. First defined in a 1978 study by Pauline Clance and Suzanne Imes, the term is “used to designate an internal experience of intellectual phonies.”³⁰ Their study indicated that this feeling impacts women more than men. It is the feeling of being a fraud. While a person may be capable and competent, they are convinced that someone made a mistake in the admissions process, or they were selected accidentally as a leader. Students tend to manifest this feeling when they feel like they should not be where they are. It may be that they feel that they belong at their home school, but not in their major or not in the leadership position they earned. Imposter syndrome leaves one filled with self-doubt and it can be stifling.

Loneliness

In a November 2023 article, Johanna Alonso discusses loneliness—what she calls “the new plague on campus.”³¹ She describes a program that Surgeon General Vivek Murphy launched to combat loneliness among college students. On a tour of colleges beginning at Duke University, Murphy talked about his “5-for-5 Connection Challenge”³² in which he asks students to “pick 5 actions and 5 days in a row to connect with people in your life.”³³ He believes this activity to be as important as exercise or diet.

COVID caused us all to lose our social connections and, while I have seen slight improvements among college-aged students since we returned to in-person classes, I still see students struggling with how to act now that we are in this new normal of mostly in-person life again. Alonso cites studies that show that “loneliness is more prevalent among young people”; a Gallup poll³⁴ of college students showed that “39% said they had experienced loneliness the previous day.”³⁵

Finally, Alonso differentiates between isolation and loneliness and makes a connection to belonging in the final sentence that states, “By reducing the stigma and ‘making sure students on the campus know belonging is a goal for the university,’ she said, colleges may be able to play a more significant role in ending the loneliness epidemic.”³⁶

What can colleges and universities do to help this feeling of loneliness? UVA launched a new, one-credit class called Hoos Connected³⁷ a few years ago which has grown in popularity. As described on the website,³⁸ the program aims to do the following:

“Hoos Connected at UVA brings together groups of students to get to know one another while discussing the key components of making meaningful connections.

Led by two trained upper-class student facilitators, groups of 6-10 students engage in activities and dialogue about what brings us together, what can keep us apart, and how these things manifest at UVA.”³⁹

This program is one example of a student-driven model to discuss and and help eliminate loneliness on campus.

Academic Advising and Support

Successful academic advising is the nut no one can crack, or at least something no university does very well according to its students and faculty. Harry Lewis, in his book Excellence Without a Soul, devotes a chapter to advising entitled “The Eternal Enigma: Advising.”⁴⁰ While retention and graduation rates may be one measure of successful advising, students often say that advisors are aloof and unhelpful, that “there is no one available to ask or talk to,” or they simply do not know the name of their advisor (even though the information is usually available in multiple places). Similar complaints also come from faculty when students are unwilling to engage in conversations.

Lewis provides an illustrative example of the issues that often arise when a student comes in for “academic advising.” He details a conversation with a student whose performance in coursework was declining. While talking with him and trying to help, the student “blurted out that his girlfriend was pregnant and neither of them had told anyone.” This type of situation is not uncommon and most faculty are not trained to deal with these kinds of personal situations. Most faculty and many parents have no idea what college-aged students are facing on a daily basis. Students must contend with the struggles of everyday life while also trying to succeed in a very competitive environment.

One unanswered question is, “Who makes the best advisor for a student?” A faculty member or a “professional advisor”? Given the mental health crisis today, should the advisor also have a counseling degree? What should the load be for an advisor? Ten advisees? Twenty? Two hundred? How are advisors trained and evaluated? Again, this is one of the unsolved problems of higher education.

How can schools improve their advising systems? Ideas abound in the literature including concepts like proactive advising, formerly known as intrusive advising and appreciative advising.⁴¹ These concepts focus on the best ways to engage students, which I believe should begin as soon as they accept their admission offer.

The concept of intrusive advising, now called proactive advising, came from the work of Robert Glennen and Faye Vowell. Jennifer Varney built on their work and defined proactive advising as “intentional institutional contact with students such that personnel and students develop a caring relationship that leads to increased academic motivation and persistence.”⁴² While this approach sounds as if it should or could be easy, it is hard to create meaningful social relationships between students and faculty. Some work perfectly, some work well, and others flop. Perhaps there needs to be a “match.com” for students and their advisors.

In 2021, UVA’s College of Arts & Sciences administration launched what I called the First Year Initiative which was an effort to better communicate with our new first-year students (freshmen). Our plan was to share, early on, key information and resources. This program began with introductory emails from academic deans in which we shared links to key workshops taught by our College Life Skills Coach, provided resources around mid-terms, and finally, assistance at the end of the term. Interspersed were shorter messages around key deadlines, such as the class drop and add deadlines and the class withdrawal deadline.

In one email message we sent in the fall semester, we asked the students if they would like their academic dean to reach out to them for any reason. All this required of the student was a simple click to say yes. It was a high-risk question since the College of A&S at UVA has around 3,000 new first-year students and some 500 new transfer students. What if they all said yes? What if half said yes? Thirty-two students (yes, 32) responded yes to this offer to meet one-on-one with their academic dean to discuss anything they want. My guess is of those 32, several never responded when their dean reached out. So how do we reach the unreachable?

In recent years, software has been developed and marketed that enables advisors and administrators to “ping” or “nudge” students. These messages can be sent either to all students or to specific groups of students who may need additional support. In my opinion, some software is quite intrusive, allowing administrators to know when a student swiped into the gym, the library, or their dorm room. It also allows administrators to see when students accessed course management sites. Opinions on this approach range from those who think that it is too much interference, to the right amount, to even more is needed. While we need to provide plenty of help in the first year, I do not think intruding on adults in this way is necessarily the right approach to solve retention problems.

Recently, Chanit’a Holmes conducted research at Virginia Tech to determine the best way to deliver notifications, aka nudges, to students.⁴³ These nudges might include financial aid or academic deadline reminders. They might ask students how they are doing with links and phone numbers for help. Her question was whether these nudges help students or make them feel more stressed out. Holmes’ second study included 1,500 students across four classes. Students “received either no academic notifications, text messages that they could not respond to, or text messages that they could respond to, sent by one of 35 volunteer peer coaches who had already taken the course.”⁴⁴ Some students responded that the messages were motivating and others felt they were repetitive, impersonal and/or stress inducing.⁴⁵ Holmes concluded that “these frustrations may have led students to stop reading or caring about the texts, which could have influenced the drop in grades mid-semester.”⁴⁶ These strategies will no doubt continue as they tend to be low cost, but we should be sure we are not doing more harm than good.

Mental Health and College Life

I referenced earlier the increase in stress, anxiety, and depression among college students. Two charts from a Psychology Today article illustrate the number of students struggling and the increase in the number of mental health issues, both mild and serious, as well as temporary to long-term, over the last few years. For example, “40% of students fail to seek help,” “80% feel overwhelmed by their responsibilities as a student,” and “50% of students rated their mental health below average or poor” (see the article for additional statistics).⁴⁷

This trend is always the topic of conversation at conferences I have attended on higher education. How, why, and when did this happen? How did it become so serious? Is there really an increase in the number of mental health issues, or is there more awareness and better diagnoses now? Are we now diagnosing less serious issues as more serious cases? Is it all the above and more?

In his book The Anxious Generation, Jonathan Haidt writes that the increase in mental health problems among young people, particularly in the U.S., started in around 2012.⁴⁸ He believes this trend is closely linked to the widespread adoption of social media platforms, especially on smartphones. Haidt argues that social media use has contributed to higher levels of anxiety, depression, and feelings of inadequacy among adolescents, particularly teenage girls. He also points to other contributing factors such as overprotective parenting, which he calls “safetyism,” and a cultural shift that emphasizes avoiding discomfort or challenging experiences. These combined influences, Haidt suggests, have led to a decline in resilience and an increase in mental health issues.⁴⁹

Other answers are not hard to come by, but they are varied. Many administrators point to snowplow parenting and excessive monitoring of students, the pressure put on students by their parents or guardians who set standards and aspirations that most of us would not be able to meet. That is, some parents expect all As, participation and leadership roles in the best clubs and sports teams, and perfect test scores. In short, they expect perfection—something none of us, including them, could ever achieve. Is this you? If so, I know this is hard to hear and I do not want to say it is easy, but you can change!

In addition, when parents or guardians consistently intervene to solve problems, they will, overall, do more harm than good. While their intentions are good (we all want to help our children whenever we can and it is painful to watch them struggle), the message they send when they do this regularly is “you are not capable of solving your own problems so I will/must do this for you.” This intervention does not let the student develop their problem-solving skills or resilience.

These are complex issues and they cannot be solved by universities alone. Diagnosing and improving mental health needs to be an all-out community effort.

Time Off from College

Some students need time off and I am always surprised at the reluctance of some parents/guardians to allow a student to withdraw from or take a leave of absence from school. I often try to find a kind and empathetic way to ask some version of this question: “Do you think your child will be successful, do their best, and enjoy their experience when they are coping with anxiety, depression, recovery, treatment, etc.?” I have watched students withdraw knowing it was best for them, all while their parents argued, “They just need some structure to their days” or “They will be so much better off if they can just stay here.” I often respond with, “But the student is clearly struggling/unhappy/failing.” Often I must resort to a line borrowed from a colleague many years ago: “School is not therapy.” I tell the parents or guardians that their child needs to focus on their health, physical and/or mental, and then return to school. We will still be there, I remind them. Students can only do their best when they are 100% focused on school and they cannot do that when others issue have not been addressed.

College should be a positive and life-changing experience for all, not something a student has to struggle through while coping with crippling anxiety, depression, or a physical injury or illness. This statement also applies to students who are not motivated because they are taking courses in a subject they do not like because someone is making them do so. Students will hit bumps along the way no matter what, so being healthy is critical. For students who manage to persevere through college despite taking time off, I often question the personal cost. I wonder how they will look back on their college years—an experience that I see as incredibly valuable and unique, something you can truly only experience once in a lifetime.

Financial Security: Money, Food, and Shelter (and Tuition)

Too many students in the United States cannot afford college and of those who manage to attend, too many face financial insecurity while in school. This insecurity includes concerns about covering tuition, daily expenses while in college, an inability to participate in extra-curricular activities or study abroad. It also includes food and housing insecurities.

Many recent articles have addressed housing and food insecurities among college students (see especially Broton and Goldrick-Rab;⁵⁰ Chen⁵¹; and Butler and Torres⁵²). In 2017, Katharine Broton and Sara Goldrick-Rab present recent research and summarize the issues well; I highly recommend it. Despite a rising distrust of higher education (discussed in the previous chapter), it is still thought to be one of the only routes to upward mobility.⁵³ According to Broton and Goldrick-Rab, 1.3 million students are homeless, an increase from three years ago.⁵⁴ The problem is worse at two-year community colleges where “the most recent estimates indicate that one in two community college students has experiences housing insecurity challenges in the past year.” They also report that, “Among 4-year college students, at least 1 in 10 and up to 1 in 5 indicated they were housing insecure.”⁵⁵ In addition, more than half of the 2- and 4-year college students they surveyed reported some kind of issue with food access.⁵⁶ After reading this article, I asked UVA’s Student Financial Services Office how many of our students they thought had housing insecurities and their response was “more than we know about.” It is a difficult thing for a student to admit and explain, especially at a school where there are many students who are quite well off. I have little doubt that the actual numbers are higher than the surveyed results.

The Free Application for Federal Student Aid (called the FAFSA) has a question on homelessness, but the data are only from students who complete the form. This form is notoriously difficult to complete and my colleagues in the Financial Aid office tell me it could get worse in 2025. In a 2017 Education Northwest article, Michelle Hodara⁵⁷ nicely summarizes the barriers to completing the FAFSA along with strategies to help prospective students complete the process. She states that “about a third of students who did not file a FAFSA would have been eligible for a Federal Pell Grant…” Completion rates vary by state; overall, the numbers have declined in all but a few states. Hodara says the barriers include the following: Students and families…

think they do not have financial need;
lack awareness and information about financial aid;
are deterred by the cost of college and the thought of taking on debt;
are put off by the complexity of the FAFSA form and process;
face similar barriers to FAFSA renewal.

Her strategies for helping future students complete the FAFSA include:

Offering personal assistance
Providing early, accurate, comprehensive, and clear information
Correcting misperceptions
Using student-level data to guide FAFSA outreach.⁵⁸

Several states are trying a statewide FAFSA policy to make completion of the form a requirement for high school graduation to increase completion rates. Texas and Illinois were two early adopters and they have seen an increase in completion rate.⁵⁹

Broton and Goldrick-Rab⁶⁰ also make the very important and obvious point that a person cannot be successful when they are hungry and homeless. This fact is true whether they face these insecurities occasionally or daily. There is no free lunch program at most colleges and even good aid packages may not cover everything that is needed. My years of talking with students have made it clear to me that many students on aid send the money back home to their families who are struggling to keep a home, to keep the lights on, to feed younger children, to care for aging parents, etc. Students on aid who are struggling with food and housing also work part-time or full-time, while juggling the demands of being a full-time student.

So, imagine yourself as a 20-something year old college student who is trying to earn a degree, who worries daily (or weekly) about food and shelter, who is trying to juggle four to five classes, and who is also working 20+ hours per week. Imagine how difficult and overwhelming that life would be. And for those who manage to do it, the cost in terms of mental and/or physical well-being is likely enormous.

A 2020 survey of 195,000 US college students who were enrolled during the COVID-19 pandemic found that 14% had experienced homelessness within the past year, though only 3% identified that way.⁶¹ Some students said their car was their home, so they did not always think of themselves as homeless. Others talked about staying with friends, family, or “couch surfing.”⁶² I do not have an easy solution, but I firmly believe we must do better and that this must be made a priority for society. Lois Beckett’s 2022 article, “My Car is my Home: The California Students with Nowhere to Live,”⁶³ brought the issue to the public’s attention again. Beckett states the following:

“At Long Beach City College, a nearly 100-year-old community college south of Los Angeles, at least eight students have been given permission to sleep in their cars in a campus parking facility, as part of an official campus program to help college students who cannot afford a place to live.

The college parking garage, which has a security guard, wifi, and bathrooms nearby, is seen as a safer alternative to students sleeping in their cars on the street, where fears of being robbed or written up by the police make it even more difficult for them to succeed at school. At least 98 students enrolled at the school are known to be experiencing homelessness this semester, according to the college’s basic needs program manager, with at least 25 of them living in their cars.”⁶⁴

It is appalling that this is a solution. Yet, lacking solutions of my own, I have no right to criticize the school, but I can ask how have we as a society allowed this to happen? It is not just a problem for college students; most people recognize that. I also think most people assume that if you are in school, whether the school is a 4-year residential college or a 2-year community college, you are somewhat financially secure. As Sara Goldrick-Rab writes in her opinion piece entitled “It’s Hard to Study if You’re Hungry”,

“As a researcher who studies how college students live, I hear frequently from people who say that struggling a bit to get through college is fine—in fact, it’s better than fine because it teaches you to work hard for what you want. After all, they had side jobs in college; they ate Ramen noodles. That’s just how it goes.“⁶⁵

Broton and Goldrick-Rab⁶⁶ argue that the stereotypes of undergraduates (and I will add graduate students) living on ramen noodles and “couch surfing” have not helped. I think they have almost romanticized what is a serious, life threatening (in some cases) issue. If you went to graduate school, you were likely at some time, “a poor graduate student.” You ate ramen or bologna on Wonder bread, you shared an apartment with others, found the best “all you can eat buffets” and smuggled food out. You saved your cans and bottles and recycled them for cash. And so on. I did all those things as a graduate student. But I was lucky, as I never truly worried about going for a day or more without any food, or about being homeless. And there is a significant difference.

Ashley Mowreader’s Inside Higher Ed article⁶⁷ offers reasons for student food insecurity and some solutions. Briefly, she states that the reasons students experience food insecurity at higher rates are (1) lack of resources, (2) social stigma, (3) busy schedules, (4) transportation, and/or cooking skills.⁶⁸ Solutions might include (1) food pantries, (2) meal swipe donation/transfer programs, (3) food recovery programs, (4) community and shared gardens, (5) cooking and meal preparation demonstrations, (6) financial literacy programming, (7) connecting students to resources and benefits, and/or (8) financial assistance. I am pleased my school currently provides several of these programs, but we all need to do more. The final line in Goldrick-Rab’s article says it all: “After all, it’s impossible to learn when you’re starving.”⁶⁹ We know this is true in K-12 grades and it does not change when you get older. Why would anyone think otherwise?

Many of us were struggling college students or graduate students. We scraped by with the resources we had. No doubt food insecurity and homelessness are not recent problems, but they were not discussed in my early years as a faculty member and administrator in higher education. We now see schools, cities, and states struggling to find free or affordable housing so students can have a chance of completing a degree. Goldrick-Rab argues,

“But what is happening today is very different. For decades, many students survived on little to afford college. But over time, the situation worsened to the point where now, hunger and homelessness routinely undermine students’ very ability to learn. Even though a far greater percentage of college students qualify for financial aid than in the past, colleges and states have fewer dollars per student to allocate to them.”⁷⁰

I want to add that I have wondered when and how food and housing insecurity became a problem for colleges to solve. I am NOT saying it should not be, but imagine a world where society solved these problems so the focus of college could be education, where college and/or technical school was affordable for all who wanted to go. A world where schools did not have continuously increase staff for financial aid, mental health, college adjustment programs, etc. I am likely delusional in this realm, but I can dream, right?

Support for First Generation and Low-Income Students

Last, but of no less importance, every student needs some help adjusting to college. It does not matter who they are or where they are going, there is no doubt that starting college is a big change. For some, however, we know the adjustment is more difficult. When one or both parents or guardians have attended college, there is someone to ask about the experience, even if their experience was a few decades ago. When no one in your immediate family has been to college, it is harder to know who to go to for advice and help. Some families are completely against their child attending college, fearing they will be alienated from their child. Some families are supportive but cannot offer any practical help. I remember a first-generation student telling me that her mother was completely supportive and her biggest fan, but she rarely wanted to call her when she was stressed or anxious about anything academic-related because it took too long to explain the issue which resulted in her being more stressed out. For example, she could not call to say she was nervous about finals when her mother did not really comprehend what was involved in the final exam period.

I once had the privilege of helping our Financial Aid Office call newly admitted students to tell them about their aid package. We completed a short training and were told to “expect anything.” This warning meant you could be hung up on, cursed at, or met with tears of gratitude. While most students were happy to get the call, I was told by one parent to “fuck off and never call this number again.” Upon calling back to try again, the same basic words were screamed at me. I still wonder what happened to that prospective student who may never have known we called to offer financial aid. But for the calls that were met with pure joy, the positive moments far outweighed the negativity and made enduring the unpleasantness tolerable.

Many colleges like UVA are actively working to recruit and admit more low-income students and more first-generation college students. This goal can be hard to reach. Also, while these two categories often overlap, they do not always overlap, and the needs are different. Some first-generation students are not low-income, and some low-income students are not first-generation. I, for example, was a first-generation college student but I was not a low-income student. And while some of the programming can be the same and would benefit any new college student, other needs are unique.

And getting students into college is only the first step. Supporting them through four years and helping them have a positive experience, ensuring they graduate on time, and helping them transition out into the workplace or to a professional school are all equally important. The infrastructure must be in place first and I do not think that is always the case. I see more schools providing funding to their low income/first-generation students, but I worry about whether there is sufficient help in place for them once they arrive. Who will guide them through their time in college, help them find majors, help them take full advantage of everything that college offers, and then help them find jobs and move on? This second phase is essential; to bring students in without help and support is irresponsible. We need to do better.