Document Author: David Monaghan

Empty Promises: Why and How Community Colleges Exclude Undocumented Students from “Free College” Promise Programs (2024)

Given their lower costs, community colleges are the most accessible postsecondary institutions for undocumented students. Emerging “free community college” (i.e. Promise) programs could therefore be uniquely beneficial for these students. Yet many programs exclude undocumented students, either explicitly or by requiring Pell eligibility or FAFSA completion. Drawing on a case study of a program at Milwaukee Area Technical College, including 146 stakeholder interviews, we shed light on why, how, and to what effect such exclusions occur. We show that this exclusion was not inevitable given administrators’ discretion in program design, but that this outcome was likely given community colleges’ subordinate position in the academic hierarchy as well as the hostile immigration state context. We also examine the college leaders’ choice of an ambiguous exclusion process and provide suggestive evidence that this ambiguity harmed undocumented students. The study furthers the understanding of the role of higher education in shaping bureaucratic incorporation for undocumented youth in hostile immigration states and uncovers another mechanism through which colleges block access to affordability for undocumented students.

Seeking STEM: The Causal Impact of Need-Based Grant Aid on Undergraduates’ Field of Study (2023)

ABSTRACT
Increasing the number of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) degrees is a national priority and one way to promote the socioeconomic mobility of students from low-income families. Prior research examining why students do not complete STEM majors often points to students’ lack of academic preparation, preferences for non-STEM majors, or lack of information about the value of STEM. This paper uses a randomized experiment to investigate an alternative explanation, that some students lack the financial resources to succeed in demanding majors. In a control group of university students from low-income families, 18.6% of students had declared a STEM major by their third year of college. In a treatment group who were offered additional need-based grant aid upon entering college, 26.5% of students declared a STEM major. Among students who had graduated within six years after entering college, 12.2% of control group graduates had earned a STEM degree compared to 20.2% of treatment group students. Need-based grants thus appear to have the potential to increase the share of low-income students studying and earning degrees in STEM.