As we continue our important work in equity across the campus--from focused inquiry groups to special listening sessions on anti-racism and implicit bias and professional training on a broad range of equity initiatives--the focus of our discussion has been on the equity gaps affecting our students from underrepresented groups. However, there exists another cohort of students that I call "non-represented underrepresented."
Student parents.
According to the 2020 survey administered by Generation Hope in partnership with the Institute for Women's Policy Research, the Hope Center for College, Community, and Justice, and others, "One in five of today’s college students is a parent, and yet they remain a largely invisible population on campus." The information presented below is based on the survey's responses of 259 students from 147 colleges and represents the most recent national data collected on stueent parents.
This research shows, for example, that
- nearly half of respondents felt disconnected from their college community,
- 21% were uncomfortable disclosing their parental status to faculty, and
- 60% missed from one to five days of classes due to the lack of adequate child care.
Further, the fall 2018 LACCD student survey showed that 18.2% (N=5,785) of students found child care obligations to be a problem in reaching their academic goals.
West has the opportunity now to make a difference in the lives of student parents by expanding on the role of the Child Development Center to include some of the features of Los Angeles Valley College's Family Resource Center, a nationally-recognized program which uses "a two-generation philosophy that looks at the whole family when addressing barriers and opportunities" to student achievement. An expectation of the new CDC Director will be to increase our current hours of operation and identify strategies to increase enrollment (thus addressing the current operational deficit). Additionally, our goal is to incorporate programs and activities that recognize the needs of student parents that transcend child care and offer student parent support groups and other opportunities to promote student success.
I know that many of you have been concerned about the future of the CDC. Please know that the College is committed to offering quality child care, but we must re-envision how this service can be improved and expanded to ensure that the needs of our student parents are recognized and addressed while concurrently facing the realities of a continuing budget deficit. The CDC will factor prominently into our campus dialogues about budget priorities for the coming years.