As we enter the new year, I am grateful for the opportunity to serve as president of Compton College and Chief Executive Officer of Compton Community College District for over 13 years. I truly appreciate everyone who has influenced me as a person and as a professional. When I look back on my time thus far, I recognize the three things that have really motivated me to do this work: securing educational partnerships, promoting racial equity, and ensuring students have access to basic needs resources. But I didn’t choose these out of the blue: these became my passions through various encounters and events over the course of my career that knocked down my door and demanded my attention.
These three priorities crystallized in a singular moment for me. I was in Washington, D.C., for the Association of Community College Trustees National Legislative Summit. Then-Acting Secretary of Education Dr. John King, and current Chancellor of the State University of New York (SUNY) was speaking. His speech was full of important insights, but there was one part that hit me hard – and has stuck with me since. He said if a student is hungry and needs to decide on purchasing a textbook or buying food, food will always win. Food will always win.
Another encounter during my presidency hit me similarly: Some Compton College student leaders demanded a meeting with me to share that the college wasn’t doing enough to support homeless students and they wanted to know what I was going to do about it.
Too often community college students and employees (that’s another thought for another time) face food and housing insecurities and homelessness. We cannot fully focus on racial disparities in postsecondary student outcomes if we do not address the basic needs of our students (Say this again and again). Although a prevalent issue among college students, housing insecurity is often overlooked. This issue disproportionately affects Black learners and has only worsened since the pandemic. In a memo from Dr. Sara Goldrick-Rab, Food Insecurity, and Homelessness in American Higher Education: An Overview of New Nationally Representative Estimates, Food insecurity 35% and 12% reported homelessness. In comparison, White students reported 18% and 7% respectively. Since 2018, Compton College has surveyed our basic needs. In the recent 2023 Real College California: Basic Needs Among California Community Colleges report, 60% of Compton College students had food insecurity compared to 47% statewide, Housing insecurity was 42.7% compared to 58% statewide, and homelessness was 21% compared to 24% statewide. What is interesting about our data is that since 2018, 18% have been homeless, and the percentage has increased to 21%. Basic needs insecurity can negatively impact a student’s academic performance, likelihood of persisting, and overall well-being. This is an issue that must be at the forefront and treated as the crisis it is if we are to make progress in breaking down barriers and supporting Black learner success.
From my perspective, institutions play a significant role in ensuring our students are supported and secure in their essential needs. Colleges and universities working to combat homelessness often use emergency grants to support students in need financially. However, not all institutions are financially able to support students with emergency grants. This is where building partnerships with community organizations is critical. At Compton College, we have a partnership with the Coalition for Responsible Community Development (CRCD) to help provide community resources to students. CRCD is Compton College’s primary partner when it comes to addressing housing insecurity on campus. Every Wednesday on our campus, CRCD provides a Peer Housing Navigator to help all students with housing resource referrals to emergency shelters, public showers, food resources, job opportunities, and many other community resources. Please note our partnership with CRCD is a well-established partnership that has been ongoing. CRCD is consistently exploring funding opportunities to support our students and their success. Students facing housing insecurity and at risk of homelessness require added outreach and support from their institutions. Colleges should explore opportunities to build expanded housing options for students. This could be on or off-campus housing.
The support available to students does not reach far if institutions are not intentional about making them accessible. At Compton College, we are excited about the Compton College Student Residential Housing Project and look forward to having 250 beds on campus for students, which will include dependent housing options for students with children. Resource and information accessibility is crucial in assisting students experiencing housing insecurity and homelessness. Students may not know where to start or be hesitant to ask for the help they need, and it is up to institutions to fill this gap. Colleges should build housing and compile comprehensive lists of resources that support students experiencing homelessness. These lists need to be easily accessible and widely disseminated to ensure all students are aware of the resources available.
In closing, some might say that addressing homelessness is the responsibility of local or state governments. However, our students are our students, and we have to advocate and support them in order for them to meet their educational goals. (Not to mention community college employees need housing support too, but I’ll save that for another thought.) It’s not enough to stop at providing a food pantry/food bank to students and leave it at that – we need to recognize that need is determined to stay hidden, and if a student is facing food insecurity, there’s a good chance they’re facing housing insecurity too. We need to make our institutions safe and hospitable for students to show up authentically and unapologetically, especially for Black learners, and loudly make our resources available to our students. This is how you create access for students. This is equity in action.