I, like the rest of nearly four million student parents, am already juggling a million different tasks all at once. Student parents juggle ever so carefully because we have perfectly balanced everything out. However, in March, those carefully balanced tasks were all thrown out of balance and we were tasked with yet another hundred things…

“Was higher ed designed for minority students?”   A student asked this question during a Temple University “Sociology of Education” class I spoke to this fall about parenting college students.   My answer? “No.” The first college in the United States, Harvard University (then Harvard College), was founded in 1636, and its legacy and...

Before the COVID-19 pandemic upturned how all of us work and learn, nearly four million student parents—more than a fifth of the entire U.S. undergraduate student population—faced near-impossible demands on their time and resources as they worked to juggle school and child care. Life before the pandemic was not working for most student parents....

For 14 years, I have been an Institutional Researcher at Monroe Community College (MCC) in Rochester, NY. On March 17, 2020, I filled the largest bag I owned with my work files and locked my office door. I then headed across the quad to pick up my five-year-old from MCC’s Richard M. Guon Child Care…

For the nearly four million undergraduate students with dependent children—including 2.7 million mothers—earning a college degree can make a life-changing difference in their family’s lifetime economic security. According to an unpublished Institute for Women’s Policy Research analysis of the Beginning Postsecondary Student Longitudinal Stu...

Executive Director Julie Peller spoke with KMAland Broadcasting about higher education during the pandemic. Listen here.

Higher Learning Advocates, a D.C.-based advocacy group, says that today’s students are older, more racially diverse, and have far fewer life options than the mainstream narrative would lead us to believe. Only 13% of college students live on campus, and two-thirds of all students work in order to make tuition payments or other expenses. Two in ...

Executive Director Julie Peller spoke with WHII-TV Beaufort News about how colleges and universities should be flexible with students as they return for fall semester and how federal policymakers can better support today’s students.

Executive Director Julie Peller joined CBS19 News to discuss how federal funding can help today’s students, who have been hit hard by the pandemic. “Being sure that students are a part of that conversation and students’ needs outside of the classroom are a part of that conversation is something that we’re fighting for this fall.”&...

Deputy Executive Director Emily Bouck West spoke with Inside Higher Ed about how colleges can better support all students, including displaced workers. “All types of students require comprehensive supports to succeed, especially during this time,” she said “That can mean making sure students have access to vital supports like chil...

Higher Learning Advocates’ nine-point policy recommendations to support college students during the coronavirus pandemic was discussed in a Diverse Issues in Higher Education article. Read the piece here.

Illise Ellsworth was transitioning from Salt Lake Community College to the University of Utah when the pandemic began. While finishing her last semester at Salt Lake Community College, her courses moved online.