The Costs of Academic Materials Detract From Student Thriving

• In Event: Ecological Perspectives of Well-Being and Thriving in Higher Education Spaces

Abstract

Research findings demonstrate that economically limited students lag behind financially secure (e.g., higher income) peers in grades, persistence rates, completion percentages, and belongingness (Brookings Institute, 2017; Education Trust, 2015; Goldrick-Rab, 2016; McClure et al., 2017; McClure & Ryder, 2018; Means & Pyne, 2017; Ostrove & Long, 2007; Soria & Stebleton, 2013). Scholars have long argued that low-income students may be considered educationally disadvantaged because this student population may not be able to partake in campus opportunities that require monetary commitments or struggle to feel connected to campus life like their higher-income peers (Kezar et al., 2015; Means & Pyne, 2017; Nguyen & Herron, 2021; Soria & Stebleton, 2013). Low-income students often overcome significant financial and structural challenges such as food insecurity (Broton & Goldrick-Rab, 2018), time poverty (Goldrick-Rab, 2016), and working more than 20 hours per week (Martin, 2015) on their way to earning a college degree. Understanding individual and organizational features promoting thriving for low-income students can help institutional leaders cultivate campus environments that respond to student’s intellectual, personal, and social development (Museus, 2014).
In this qualitative study, I take up how the cost of academic materials detracts from student thriving for 30 low-income students, which Schreiner (2010) defines as (a) engaged learning, (b) academic determination (c) positive perspective, (d) social connectedness, and (e) diverse citizenship. This study takes up how time poverty impacts students. When a student experiences stress associated with finances, implications for thriving emerge. The Fall 2022 American College Health Association report identified finances as the second leading challenge for college students, of which three-quarters of students indicated moderate or high distress from finances. Though the costs of academic materials have declined with the introduction of electronic resources, students still spent close to $350 each academic year (NACS, 2022).
Within the Results section of this paper, I will report on coping strategies participants used to avoid spending their finite monetary resources on academic materials. Such strategies included delaying the purchase of books, trying to return books early in the semester to get their money back, and not purchasing books at all. I will also highlight positively received strategies that some institutional agents (e.g., faculty, staff) supported students through incorporating open educational resources into courses and making library resources (e.g., video streaming) more visible. When low-income students did not have to worry about financial positioning to support their academic endeavors, they engaged in the collegiate setting and developed stronger relationships with peers. Within the symposium, in addition to the study findings, I will offer specific ways I have lessened costs for students and how the overall cost paradigm needs to support the needs of students most often pushed to the margins.

Author

• David J. Nguyen, Ohio University