"I Just Changed the Sign!" The Role of Community College Staff in Shaping Campus Climate

• In Event: 41.035 - Complicating Undocufriendly: Institutional Responses to Undocumented Student Services in Higher Education

Abstract

Despite recent statewide legislation which has created new avenues for financial support for undocumented students in California, undocumented community college students continue to face a host of barriers in accessing higher education.
Though many are motivated to pursue postsecondary educational opportunities, poverty, full-time work, family caretaking responsibilities, and substandard academic preparation often mitigate these aspirations among undocumented community college students. The ways institutions respond to the needs of this unique group of students can often determine if they abandon these dreams after a semester or two or if they will transfer to a 4-year-university and ultimately obtain a college degree.

This paper draws on qualitative data collected between 2013 and 2015, examining the experiences of undocumented community college students in the agricultural Central Valley of California, and focuses on a set of findings that speak to the relationship between the broader legislative landscape and the ways in which these statewide policies take shape on individual campuses. This paper argues that the impact of these legislative changes in California are profoundly shaped by the informal micro-processes on individual community college campuses. I find that individual staff members, informal practices, and non-sanctioned associations interact with these larger legislative processes in ways that either augment or constrain the institution’s capacity to meet the needs of undocumented students on their campuses.

An analysis of interview and observational data with undocumented students and staff members at 8 different community college campuses in California’s Central Valley illustrates the ways statewide policies are important in increasing educational access for undocumented students, though are only as effective as are the micro-level practices and processes on individual campuses. These findings speak to the limits of educational policy reform within a context in which anti-immigrant sentiment shapes interpersonal relationships and therefore the dispersal of student services on college campuses as well as the transformative power one person can have in shifting campus climate and instituting inclusive practices for marginalized students in that context.

Author

• Genevieve Negron-Gonzales, University of San Francisco