5 Biggest Challenges I See for Minorities Attending College

Colleges all over the nation are seeing a rise in the enrollment of minority students, even taking proactive steps to recruit more and more students of color to their universities. Although the presence of students is increasing, it does not always mean that institutions are adequately preparing to serve and support those students to thrive while in college and beyond. There are several issues that I have observed during my career as a higher education professional that I feel need to be proactively addressed in the coming years.

Financial Aid

Everyone pretty much knows the lack of financial aid is a problem in education. I personally will not tire of talking about it until I feel enough is proactively being done to increase funding in education. The students need money to stay in school – free money. Financial issues are a huge drain to the psyche, and students cannot concentrate on their studies, if they don’t know if they can pay their bill or they’re stressed about not being able to find a job to fulfill their work study award. I’ve witnessed strong, eager students be forced to drop out of college, because their families could not afford the thousand or so dollars to keep them in school. Schools are not keeping track of the ratio between the amount of students that need federal work study and the quantity of these jobs they are able to provide on campus. Students who have accepted loans to go to college, but cannot afford to stay are ending up in more debt than they’ve accepted.  Dropping out of school means they now have to pay the loans back earlier than anticipated, but the types of jobs they can get without a college degree does not accommodate what it takes to sustain a living AND pay student loans. Federal and state governments and the universities themselves need to give away more money to students of color and other minorities. They need FREE MONEY. FREE MONEY. FREE MONEY. FREE MONEY. FREE MONEY. That’s it. I’ve said it enough…. for this article at least… FREE MONEY!!! Ok. I’m done… for now…

Academic Preparation

The academic playing field is not equal, another tragedy of the American education system (that I won’t go too much on my soap box about here), but there also needs to be a more proactive approach to provide academic support and provide spaces where minority students feel empowered to use those services. Additionally, universities could do better at recruiting students of color to become tutors, such as identifying students of color that perform well academically in courses, especially the courses with high underperformance.

Culturally Incompetent Faculty

There needs to be a systematic way to educate faculty on multicultural competence. I don’t know how many times I’ve heard administrators stress diversity and inclusion as a core values of the university, and then encounter students who had a professor who used a microaggression in the classroom or targeted students to answer a cultural topic. There is more to being a professor than being an expert in a subject area or even strong teaching skills. Strong professors need to possess empathy and culturally competence to be effective in the classroom in this era. Despite what administration might try to foster in the campus climate, sometimes the class environment is what is hurting the university culture, and leaders of higher education institutions should be held more accountable for ensuring more students of color feel safer by being more proactive about diversity and inclusion training for faculty.

 Pressure to Work Inhibits Career Development

Slightly different from the financial issues, students of color and other minorities are more than likely to work while attending school. The additional time commitment to part time, or definitely full time work, often limits their time to invest in more career-related experiences, such as internships or leadership opportunities on campus or student organizations. Students are hurt by this when it comes to the job search close to graduation, because although they possess transferable skills that make them relatively employable, they do not have concrete technical skills or awareness that makes them qualified for career-related work. This situation contributes to the high rate of underemployment, and even increases attrition rates, since students are taking certain jobs solely as gateways to more desirable positions, because they didn’t have the experience to do this immediately upon graduation. Higher education professionals can work together to identify on campus positions that can be converted to internships or work more closely with employers to ensure students are not only paid, but adequately paid for experiential opportunities.

Lack of Mentors or Role Models

Seeing faculty and staff that look like students of color is key to helping students identify meaningful options for their future. “ Seeing is believing”, and many students are not clear about what options are available or how to navigate important career milestones without identifying professionals to whom they can relate. Creating more incentives for faculty and staff or developing mentor programs with employer partners would help minority students with a variety of academic, personal, and career challenges.

Providing more opportunities for students of color and other minorities to attend college is a great start to increasing educational equity. Yet, we need to take it a step further beyond initial pathways to opportunity. I would like to see more institutional changes that rethink resource allocation to these students, so they not only feel welcomed to campus but secure and supported to graduate and prepared for life after college. Here’s hoping the powers that be take note and start setting the foundations for change.