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Adult Learners and Students with Children Knowledge Community 

About our students...

Currently, close to 40% of female undergraduates are married or have children, 34% of all undergraduates are married or parenting children and 39% of all undergraduates in the U.S are 25 years of age or older, (ACE, 2005).  Additionally, 11% of all undergraduates are not only parenting children but are doing so as single heads of households, making them economically stressed, at-risk for academic interference from various forces and in need of very specific, supportive programming as students.  Parenting students especially tend to be an "invisible" and uniquely difficult to identify population of students on college campuses. While traditional aged student parents matriculate through college with similar developmental and academic needs as typically aged non-parenting students, they also face very specific challenges related to their own parenting responsibilities, increased time constraints and the generalized stress of having to balance two often diametrically opposed worlds. 
http://www.clasp.org/admin/site/publications/files/Nontraditional-Students-Facts-2011.pdf
 
NASPA and the Adult Learners and Students with Children Knowledge Community membership feels that NASPA needs a designated entity within Student Affairs to monitor and report on the current explosion of interest in degree acquisition among teen parents and young single mothers, and explosion is not an overstatement.  This writer has been serving student parents in higher education for 11 years, and she has never seen the amount of political, policy or funder interest in student parents present across all sectors at this time.  Policy proposals and funding opportunities are rolling out almost faster than one professional, or one program can track.  In 2011 alone there was at least one large, federal funding opportunity released specifically to address the higher education and career development needs of young pregnant and parenting college students.  The writer has submitted a grant proposal for and expects to benefit from, these funds in the up-coming academic year.  This interest is evident at all levels; from the White House and state legislators, to private funders such as the Gates Foundation, to large policy and research organizations such as the Institute for Women's Policy Research.  Others are funding initiatives targeting degree acquisition among teen parents and young single mothers and in so doing, are acting on higher education in very critical ways.  Higher Education professionals need to be part of this discussion, as decisions made and funds dispersed now, will impact college campuses for years to come. NASPA has an opportunity to be on the cutting edge of these funding trends.
 
http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-112hr2617ih/pdf/BILLS-112hr2617ih.pdf
http://www.publicagenda.org/files/pdf/theirwholelivesaheadofthem.pdf
 
Adult Learners, who are identified as: undergraduates who are twenty-five years of age or older; may also be student parents, but have additional age and generational needs which are unique in terms of both their academic and social functioning on campus.  With the current economic climate, wide spread lay-offs and loss of jobs in manufacturing and other industries, an increase in college attendance among formerly mid-life, middle income wage earners is sure to follow and has already begun on a large scale at the Community College level.  Some of these students may be parents, but not actively "parenting" their now grown children and others may be experiencing the very unique situation of parenting a college student, while they themselves are attempting to complete a degree.
 
http://www.luminafoundation.org/newsroom/news_releases/2010-09-29.htm
http://focus.luminafoundation.org/pdf/winter2005/#/1/
http://www.clasp.org/news_room/clips?id=0137
http://www.clasp.org/news_room/clips?id=0140
 
The primary focus of the ALSC- KC is on undergraduates, as graduate students have historically fallen within a far broader age range than undergraduates to begin with and are far more likely to be married and or parenting students during their graduate and professional degrees. However, the chairs have noted an increased interest in student parent related services over the years, and we would not be opposed to a sub-committee forming to address the needs of graduate and professional student parents.
While we see each of these populations as being unique in their own right, there is enough commonality of experience and risk factors to warrant combining our focus for the purpose of the ALSC-KC. Points of intersect between these populations include but is not limited to:
  • Increased external time constraints due to work, marital commitments, parenting responsibilities or all three not found among typical student population.
  • Increased stress created by number of, and conflict between, non-academic demands and responsibilities.
  • More likely to have a break in academic careers due to pregnancies, parenting stop-outs or previous, non-degree based career.
  • Decreased ability to find a comfortable "social fit" with typical populations of students.
  • Less likely to be able to spend time on campus, impacting their ability to participate in needed study groups, extra-curricular and other campus activities.
  • Less likely to be able to access and benefit from opportunities such as sororities and fraternities, study abroad learning experiences and other enrichment experiences.
  • Less likely to have disposable income due to childcare costs, spousal support, mortgages, heavier debt burden and other factors than "typical" students.
  • Tend to experience negative responses from non-parenting and typically aged students, i.e. ignored by class peers when study groups are formed, dirty looks when they bring even well behaved children with them to class.
  • Less likely to find class peers with shared interests and priorities, creating a general lack of community for these student populations.
  • Can often experience blatant prejudice specific to their age or parenting status.
  • Less likely to be able to block out other demands and make academic work their complete focus.  It may be a high level priority, but coursework can never take precedent over the well being of a child or spouse, nor the demands of an employer who may also be contributing financially toward student's degree costs.
Though both these populations of students can face significant barriers both internally and externally, to both college entrance and degree completion, they also display just as many assets, which not only benefit them in the academic setting, but which also contribute to the richness of all our college campuses.  These include but are not limited to:
  • Greater academic maturity, regardless of chronological age. Nothing grows an individual up more than having a child to feed, a spouse to support or a mortgage to pay.
  • Better defined and more realistic major and career plans.
  • Greater life experience and the increased self-awareness that comes with it.
  • Better time and overall life management skills. Though they have a great deal to balance, they have learned to do so long ago, or they never would have made it through the application process.
  • Increased ability to be a team player and cooperate in a group setting due to increased work, relationship and parenting experience.
  • Increased understanding of the need to graduate quickly and that "time is money."
  • Better able to take responsibility for their learning experience.
  • More likely to develop positive relationships with professors. Less likely to feel intimidated to speak to advisors, professors and staff.  
  • Better ability to navigate systems large and small due to their past experience interfacing with human services, corporate employers, insurance, etc. etc.