Dr. Xavia Harrington-Chate presents "Students at the Center: Vulnerable Student Success and Retention in a COVID-19 World”
Pott College: The Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Spring Colloquium Series
Students at the Center: Vulnerable Student Success and Retention in a COVID-19 World
https://usi.zoom.us/j/95742323932
For many high school and college students, the COVID-19 pandemic caused what felt like a tectonic shift in their daily lives, their weekly schedules, and their academic goals. This may have caused what many scholars predict to be the worse enrollment and retention rates in higher education in over 50 years. Due to COVID-19, the slowly declining enrollment and retention trends of the past were long gone. Now, these declining rates are growing exponentially. In Fall 2020, the college enrollment rate decreased ten times lower than the already decreased Fall 2019 enrollment rate, and according to the National Student Clearinghouse, this trend will continue onto Fall 2021. Sadly, while all high school college going students and currently enrolled college students felt the effects of the global pandemic, no student population was impacted more than our vulnerable students, who are, oftentimes, at the intersections of low-income, diverse abilities, non-traditional, and/or first-generation status. Simply put, vulnerable students' college enrollment and retention is being negatively impacted at a disproportionately higher rate. What can higher education do to attract, enroll, and retain our most vulnerable students? This talk discusses how both student and academic affairs can view old models with new lenses to tackle a problem that is now bigger, badder, and bolder: vulnerable student success and retention during a global pandemic.