Toward Multi-Dimensional Care for Undocumented College Students: Lessons from a Sanctuary Campus

• In Event: Higher Education Professionals and Undocumented Student Support

Abstract

Objectives & Framework. This paper details how faculty and staff at a small liberal arts college (SLAC) understand and enact care for their undocumented students. Research on undocumented student experiences in higher education highlights the importance of relationships with faculty and staff mentors (Barnhardt et al., 2013; Bjorklund et al., 2018; Clark-Ibáñez et al., 2012) and underscores the need for educators who are sensitive to undocumented students’ psycho-social challenges. They are called to provide “emotional support and safety,'' and to be “validating,” “sensitive,” “responsible, warm, respectful, approachable, and open,” and “aware” of undocumented students and their stories (Bjorklund et al., 2018, Clark-Ibáñez et al., 2012; Contreras, 2009; Golash-Boza & Valdez, 2018; Suárez-Orozco et al., 2015). In other words, undocu-allies should embody an “ethic of care” (Noddings, 1988) in which they recognize and respond to students’ full humanity beyond the academic sphere. While undoubtedly important, care theorists have long argued that positive teacher-student relationships are insufficient in repairing the harms experienced by minoritized students. Authentic care is multi-dimensional, including familial, intellectual, and critical dimensions (Curry, 2021), which are enacted in warm and welcoming relationships, high academic challenge and support, culturally and linguistically sustaining pedagogies, and teaching that challenges inequality and promotes social justice (Antrop-González and De Jesús 2006; Author, 2022; Bartolomé 2008; Irizarry and Nieto 2009). The specific contours of faculty and staff support beyond the socio-emotional sphere, however, remain underexplored in college/ university contexts.

Methods & Results. Our research at “Hawthorne,” a SLAC that is also a “sanctuary campus,” explores how faculty and staff enact authentic care (Curry, 2021) for undocumented students. Focus group discussions with 16 faculty and 8 staff members of an “Undocumented Student Support Network” included long-time advocates for undocumented students as well as interested novices. We found that individuals practiced intellectual care through discipline-specific advising for graduate school and career, critical care by helping undocumented students without work authorization to find alternatives to on-campus employment and to identify inclusive summer opportunities, and familial care in offering socio-emotional support and focusing on increasing students’ sense of belonging. These forms of care were distributed among the group, with different institutional agents providing different forms and degrees of mentoring, advising, and development (Baker & Griffin, 2010). However, several participants reported barriers to enacting intellectual and critical care, including unclear college policies and decision-making structures and a lack of discipline- and industry-specific guidance for advising.

Significance. Our findings offer preliminary details on what multidimensional care for undocumented students in higher education could look like, including affective, academic, and critical/ advocacy dimensions, while also highlighting the continued need for institutional clarity and leadership, even on a sanctuary campus. Given the substantive role that faculty can play in college students’ success (Kinzie, 2005) and the fact that they interact with students more frequently than other higher education professionals (Zerquera, 2018), these findings provide implications for developing an important constituency of potential advocates.

Authors

• Elaine Cristina Allard, Swarthmore College

• Raia Francisco, Swarthmore College