Document Tag: practitioner guides

“I can’t learn when I’m hungry”: Responding to U.S. college student basic needs insecurity in pedagogy and practice (2023)

Food insecurity and other basic needs insecurities were pressing concerns for U.S. college students prior to the COVID-19 crisis and are even more so now. These issues disproportionately impact minoritized students, making addressing basic needs an issue of educational equity. As feminist teacher-scholars, we reflect in this essay on what it means to teach in the context of student basic needs insecurities, drawing on our experiences from launching an interdisciplinary initiative dedicated to combatting food insecurity on our campus. In doing so, we seek to catalyze changes within and beyond the classroom to better support students.

Basic Needs for All Students: American Council for Education Webinar (2020)

On June 11, Dr. Sara Goldrick-Rab, leader of the #RealCollege movement and best known for her innovative research on food and housing insecurity in higher education, will discuss the importance of basic needs and emergency aid for college and university students. Her recent report revealed that 68% of parenting students were housing insecure in the previous year, compared to 42% of students were housing insecure in the previous year. The pandemic has exasperated the crisis around basic needs.

In an unprecedented move, the federal government granted higher ed with nearly $7B through the CARES Act to be used elusively for emergency aid for their students. Learn more about why granting emergency aid has always been important but is most especially critical today, along with strategies for how to assess basic needs and disburse funds. Dr. Goldrick-Rab will share why using an equity lens (to support all students, but especially DACA, students of color, students from low-income backgrounds, and student parents) has a clear ROI for higher ed.