Today’s college students are more diverse than ever before in age, race, ethnicity, economic status, gender, identity, and sexual orientation. They are experiencing stress, anxiety, and depression at alarmingly high rates.
Today’s students are studying under very different conditions than even 10 years go, according to Gregory Adam Haile, J.D., President of Broward College. There is much more emphasis on responding to students’ needs, he said during the recent Fierce Education virtual conference, Higher Education: Business & Leadership Summer Edition. To view his presentation on-demand, click here.
Factors that can affect academic performance include financial, food, or housing insecurity.
Financial need is a growing factor of community college students. In a recent survey, 70% said that lack of money could force them to quit. In fact, financial issues can make or break college completions. Housing insecurity makes students twice as likely to quit. More than one million fewer students enrolled in 2022 than before the pandemic.
Prior to the pandemic, more than 30% of students reported mental disorders. Now it’s doubled to 60% post pandemic. In order to meet the academic and health needs of students, Haile said, “We have to continue to review whether we’re doing our jobs and deal with all the barriers to help students find success.”
Broward College Follows National Trends
Haile stated that Broward College is a window into national trends for community colleges. Student data from Broward indicates:
- 81% of students attend part-time
- 56% are eligible for Pell grants
- 46% are the first generation in their family to attend college
- 56% are female; 38% are male
- 38% are Hispanic; 30% Black, 14% white; 21% other
- 22% of undergraduates are parents
- 70% are mothers; 62% are single mothers; 42% of single parents work full or part-time
- Average age is 24.5 years old
Other important factors to note:
- 36% of students are very satisfied with Broward College
- 59% of students are satisfied
- Challenges with the greatest impact on student performance include:
- Employment – 39%
- ransportation/Commuting—28%
- Mental Health—25%
- When students need help, they:
- Go to a friend—23%
- Speak to an advisor—22%
- Seek faculty—16%
- Faculty
- Speak to students outside class—20%
- Email students—20%
- Refer to tutoring—19%
Allocating Resources
Haile said institutions must help students with solutions, and sometimes this means a reallocation of resources. Broward College used data to make significant changes, such as dropping the athletics program. The administration dropped the program because it was quite expensive and only involved 147 students.
Administrators determined they could help all 63,000 students if they reallocated those resources. They added tutors, helped with food insecurity, increased counseling by 24%, and offered suicide training to student leaders as well as administration and faculty. They shifted advising tools online and saw an 80% increase in student use. They have also embedded mental health awareness into campus events.
The priority for resource allocation is as follows:
- Core functions are areas of work that meet state education requirements or accreditation requirements.
- Value add functions are areas of work that support or complement core functions but are not required by either state statutes or regional accreditation.
- Key metrics are key performance indicators that monitor progress toward growing or contracting the respective unit of measure. Key metrics communicate to internal and external stakeholders the colleges priority for how it will direct resources and assets to fulfill its mission.
The WHY
This is an incredibly challenging time where college students of all ages and background face significant existential threats. “Colleges must be safe havens where students can explore and discover their best personal and professional selves,” said Haile. “Career success today requires emotional intelligence as much as it does technical proficiency, and that begins with well-being and resilience.”