Who Gets to Belong in College? A Review of How Institutions Can Expand Belonging Opportunities

• In Event: How to Create Environments of Belonging for Students: New Perspectives on School Belonging Research

Abstract

Over a dozen rigorous randomized-controlled trials show that recognizing worries about belonging in a new school as normal and as improving with time can help students stay engaged, build relationships, and succeed. Such “social-belonging” interventions can help students take advantage of opportunities available to them to come to belong in college—yet these opportunities vary. Integrating past literature with novel data from the College Transition Collaborative’s massive trial of the social belonging intervention (N=15,143 students in 374 “local-identity” groups in 22 colleges and universities; Walton et al., 2023), we explore who gets to belong in college and what colleges and universities can do to expand these opportunities. First, these opportunities vary, both across institutions and systematically across groups. For instance, Black and first-generation college student groups are less likely to have minimally adequate opportunities for belonging. Second, almost all institutions are serving some student groups well, but all can improve. Third, we identify and quantify four classes of institutional factors that predict belonging affordances at the identity group level: (1) greater in-group representation, (2) more inclusive cultures, (3) greater opportunities for strong relationships, and (4) greater opportunities for productive learning. In general, the latter factors (2-4) predict belonging affordances both alone and above and beyond numeric representation. We emphasize two primary implications: How institutions can learn from their students about whom they are creating opportunities for and whom they are not, and what they can do to expand opportunities for belonging among those groups that are not yet well served.

Authors

• Kathryn M Kroeper, Sacred Heart University

• Maithreyi Gopalan, University of Oregon

• Katherine Emerson, Equity Accelerator

• Gregory Mariotti Walton, Stanford University