Correction – Some changes were made to this article to improve punctuation and grammar, and to better clarify some if its statistical data.
They say it takes a village to raise a child, yet Long Beach City College has large gaps to fill in places where the institution is not providing entirely for their student parent population on campus.
Even though there is need for services like the Child Development Center and a mother’s room, LBCC does not collect data on parenting students, which may leave the administration, faculty and staff unaware of the growing number.
A Cooperative Agencies Resources for Education (CARE) specialist at LBCC, Deborah Boyle, said she “wouldn’t know statistics on the student parent population.”
To date, many Southern California campuses are taking on a two-generation, or 2Gen, approach to supporting student parents, which is an approach that focuses on fulfilling the needs of both the student parent and their children in order to lesson some of the difficulties that the parent may face while attending college.
Los Angeles Valley College has an expansive family center that provides child care, children’s clothes and many other resources for the children of student parents.
Amber Angel, program coordinator for the family resource center at LAVC, understood the need for 2Gen programs when her water broke during her 8 a.m. math class.
Angel brings her two young girls to the center where she works, which has helped them acclimate to the college campus lifestyle.
“Student data collection is important. If you don’t have the data, I suggest the Institute of Women’s Policy Research, or IWPR. How we initially first got data was through financial aid. FAFSA does ask the students if they have dependents. It is important to know that it is not complete, because there are dreamers, those who don’t qualify and other factors. When we calculated the data at the time, we saw that about 29 percent of our students were raising children which was more than the national average,” Angel said.
The Institute for Women’s Policy Research current fact sheet shows that 22 percent of all undergraduates are parenting students, which means a little more than one in five students on any given college campus may have children, however the report doesn’t specify the age of the children.
Anthropology and Environmental Studies major Lara Mienjtes, who is also a parenting student at LBCC, conducted her own personal survey of students in roughly 40 classes during the 2018 spring semester.
Mienjtes’ research concluded about 18 percent of students on our campus may have dependents during a semester.
That is roughly 4,000 of over 20,000 LBCC students who would benefit from 2Gen programs, which is a huge jump up from the roughly 60 students that the CARE program is currently providing for according to Boyle.
(PART II, thinking outside the sandbox)
Meeta May, a parenting student at LBCC, was hoping to find childcare for her son and daughter, only to find out that they were too old for the program.
“There is nothing on campus that helps me with time management,” May said.
“I think it would be perfect if LBCC had a daycare for parents with older kids so we can study. About two years ago I went to the Child Development Center, but they said my kids were too old.”
LBCC’s Child Development Centers have a license from the department of Social Services Community Care Licensing Division to serve potty-trained children ages two through five.
According to PCC Child Development Center manager Stacey Smith-Clark, the center has limited space, and it utilizes all the space they have.
The Family Resource Center at LAVC used a little bit of ingenuity to find ways around this.
“Our kid friendly study lounge is the most recognizable on campus because we take in children any age from zero to 18. We have an internship program that is unpaid but provides college credit. Our interns range from students on campus, to local high school students who want to get a college experience. So, if your campus has child development center this would be a low-cost way for a campus to start providing this support,” Angel said.
Following a 2gen approach, if LBCC provided a place on campus for students and their children to both study, this may alleviate pressure from the parenting student while also instilling a sense of belonging in the child by stepping foot on a college campus regularly.
(PART III, The hard way or the Milky Way)
On both LBCC campuses, the student health rooms have what LBCC nurse Leticia Covarrubias calls an “everything room”.
According to Covarrubias, the mother’s room “has always been here and is one of the only places that is closed off” for student mothers to get the privacy they need when breastfeeding.
“The Mother’s room is open Monday through Thursday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m and Fridays 8 a.m. to 12 p.m,” Covarrubias said.
LBCC has until Jan. 1, 2020 to be in compliance with state law AB 2785 by having a lactation room that is open during any time that a lactating student may need the room.
Our campus currently holds evening classes until 9:50 p.m. and Saturday classes until 2:00 p.m.
These class hours occur after the student health facilities close their doors.
If a lactating student who can’t make it to the room 10 minutes before they close has a need the likely option would be the nearest restroom.
Not only is this not in compliance with the law, it is not sanitary for the breast-feeding student or their child.
When asked when parenting students can expect proper accommodations, director of Student Health and Student Life Deborah Miller-Calvert did not know of any alternative spaces.
“We are definitely still doing investigations and research and trying to be creative in resolving this for the students who might have some night classes on campus, but we don’t have anything finalized yet so, so I can’t share anything,” Miller-Calvert said.
The current mother’s room on both campuses have yet to be identified on campus maps, posted signage or even the website.
LAVC’s family resource room currently has a private breastfeeding room on campus where a ‘do not disturb’ sign goes up and the door can be locked. The resource center has also provided a fridge in the room for sanitary safekeeping of the breast milk.
According to Associate Vice President in the administrative service department at LAVC Sarah Song, if the room is closed, lactating students can still access the room with quick communication to the campus sheriff to open the room.
“They can contact us anytime. We are not open weekends but there are some night time students who may have the need, so if they let us know ahead of time, we will let the campus sheriff know about the need through e-mail or a phone call,” Song said.
This has proven to be a simple and effective way to provide this resource for lactating students as well as create communication on campus about the needs of parenting students.
(PART IV, Does LBCC really CARE?)
The CARE program, which has about 60 students this semester, is designated for a very specific group of parenting students: single students with dependents who are already receiving cash aid.
“I didn’t even find out about the CARE program through LBCC, I found out about it through a welfare program in Compton, so I had to go into EOPS and ask myself. The process was easy, but they really should reach out to students through more social media, make flyers and brochures, maybe post it somewhere noticeable on the website,” May said.
The CARE program also requires parenting students to attend counseling appointments, however children are not allowed with them at appointments in the Extended Opportunity Program rooms.
“When students are meeting with a counselor, we want their undivided attention since they are going over educational goals which are very important. We also share our space with DSPS and have testing going on. Kids will be kids; they may yell cry or scream, and we don’t want to trigger anyone in our DSPS program or distract those who are doing testing,” said EOPS worker Jenna Strobel.
Referring back to the term 2Gen the institutes website states that “ensuring that both parents and children have access to affordable, high-quality educational opportunities, for example, is a core component of a 2Gen approach. Investments in the postsecondary success of parents with young children can increase attainment of credentials leading to good jobs, bring children the benefits of high-quality learning environments, promote later college-going among children, and improve family economic security across generations.”
Cultivating a sense of community for children at a young age will teach them that they are important and should be considered.
The culture of LBCC’s staff and campus must see that as important in order to find solutions around screaming children, like providing toys in the counseling office or a comfortable place to read a book and do homework.
(Part IV, Piecing it together)
When child development major Alexis Hernandez found out her due date she spoke to her counselor about her options and found that there were not many available.
“I knew my due date was going to be before the finals, so I had to withdraw from classes. Some professors were supportive but still said withdraw and some said put it on hold. It was very unclear. I guess they haven’t had many students in my position. If I had looked more into it, I wouldn’t of even have applied that semester,” Hernandez said.
Title IX, a 1972 bill, prohibits discrimination based on sex in education programs or activities.
All public and private educational institutions that receive federal financial assistance must comply with Title IX as it protects students, including prohibiting discrimination against pregnant and parenting students.
Under Title IX, educational institutions ‘must excuse a student’s absences because of pregnancy or childbirth for as long as the student’s doctor deems the absences medically necessary. When a student returns to school, she must be allowed to return to the same academic and extracurricular status as before her medical leave began.’
Despite this over 40-year-old law, LBCC has not established policy measures for student parents or created congruence in attendance policies with its professors.
Our campus has a three-person team in place for handling Title IX policies and procedures.
Dr. Alisia Kirkwood, who is new to the coordinator position also conducts investigations when necessary.
“Most students probably don’t know that if you are expecting, that allows you certain accommodations. We have an advocate for that sole purpose. Maybe the professor doesn’t know that this falls under gender discrimination. Students should reach out to student affairs who will refer them to a Title IX advocate to help the student navigate the conversation with their instructor or professor,” Kirkwood said.
If an expecting or parenting student does not know that they may be able to receive accommodations, they could remain unaware that their circumstance may be protected through Title IX.
Most students and staff may not even know what Title IX is or how it applies to them.
There is a need for a clear policy to be put in place not only to protect the parenting students but to create a culture of fairness and inclusivity on campus that all professors and instructors can abide by.
“It’s just really about raising awareness and understanding,” Kirkwood said.
(Part V: Recognizing the need)
Los Angeles Valley College began representing student parents long before its family resource building opened its doors in 2007.
Director Marni Roosevelt a child development teacher at the time, had students asking her about their own kids and if they could start a social network.
She brought toys and blankets and pushed the tables and chairs in her room around and from there the program grew.
“When the campus first found about it, they offered an empty bungalow, someone donated a small dresser full of baby clothes and we reached out to high end nursery stores to start the clothing group. Roosevelt, just happened to be on a board with real estate developers J.H. Snyder Co., who needed to put it money to childhood development, so they donated one million and a half dollars. We got the donation through the foundation, so we operate like a 501C3 non-profit. The college still comes in to clean our facility and we don’t pay rent. It’s a very unique situation, but we are the base model for a lot of campuses across the country,” said program coordinator Angel.
As the family resource center began Roosevelt wrote grants to support the staffing and provide internships for child development majors, which created a workforce.
The family resource center staff also reached out to financial aid, counselors, and professors to inform them of the new resources on campus.
Early in its inception, the center created an advisory board that includes staff and parenting students who hold quarterly meetings to discuss donations, grants, and the needs of the program.
In her letter to the the Viking News, Lara Meintjes wrote, “A student making use of the lactation facilities is probably a different student to the one who enrolls their 2-5 year old in campus child care, and the low income EOPS student attending a counseling appointment is unlikely to be able to pay for child care to enable them to attend their appointment.”
It would appear that the only common thread holding parenting students together is the fact that they have children.
If these students are each in different places on campus at any given time, they may never begin to grasp the network of other student parents at their fingertips.
On lbcc.com, the resources page does not have a section for parenting students to find resources they may need on campus like the mother’s room, CARE program or more information on Title IX advocacy.
Currently, there is no designated place on campus for parenting students to meet or a club or program on campus for representation.
“If you care about student success then there is a need for resources and programs for student parents,” Angel said.
(PART VI: So, what’s it all got to do with LBCC?)
On Flex day on March 21, a designated day for professional development of faculty, Superintendent-President Reagan Romali announced the establishment of a task force on racial equity and inclusion.
During a discussion about a motion proposed by trustee president Sunny Zia regarding making requests to the superintendent-president, student success was also on Romali’s mind during the April 24 board of trustees meeting.
“My job is to raise graduation rates, raise transfer rates, get people jobs, get people retained,” Romali said.
“We must balance appropriately the needs of the board, the needs of the students, the needs of the faculty, administrators and staff.”
The Institute for Women’s Policy Research most current data shows that students of color are more likely to be student parents, with 51 percent of those students likely to have children, compared to 46 percent of students of color without children.
On the national level, black college students are the most likely to be parents.
College campuses can also expect roughly one in five hispanic students to have dependents, Asian parenting students make up about 13 percent of their population and Native and Pacific Islander parenting students make up over 70 percent of their demographic combined.
Students with dependents are also the most vulnerable when it comes to being in debt and have nearly twice the debt than students without children according to the institutes website.
It would appear that the need for resources for our parenting students is in line with the goals of Romali’s racial and equity task force as well as supporting students, staff and faculty alike.
There may not be a clear solution when it comes to the parenting student population but the need to create community, resources and a plan of action to support student parents is apparent.
In order to fill these gaps and catch up to surrounding community colleges and the nation, LBCC must start collecting data on the student parent population as well as conduct surveys to understand their needs.
But it does not stop there; student parents will need to speak up about their needs and begin advocating for themselves, they can do this by attending board of trustee or ASB meetings, starting clubs on campus and communicating with their counselors about their needs.
This would force the LBCC faculty and staff into taking parenting students needs into consideration when deciding policies, procedures or even resources to provide on campus.
Most of all, there will need to be a shift in the culture of how the LBCC community chooses to connect and communicate with one another on campus.