Legacy college admissions — the practice of selective institutions giving preference to children and relatives of alumni — is under intense scrutiny today. Originally established to exclude certain populations of students, legacy admissions provides a significant boost to children of ultrawealthy families who apply to elite institutions.
Legacy admissions has an even more corrosive influence: It widens equity gaps in higher education. The well-to-do college students who have benefited from the generational impact of their parents or grandparents have inherited immense cultural capital that makes it more likely they will attend and graduate from college and become even wealthier. These college legacies won’t move the needle on national concerns of college attainment, degree completion and economic mobility.
There is, however, another group of children who have received much less consideration in higher education but will have a profound impact on its future: the children of student-parents.
Nearly one-fourth of all college undergraduates — roughly 3.8 million students — are parents of dependent children. These parenting students are more likely to be students of color, in their 30s or older and caring for children who are preschool age or younger. Though student-parents typically boast higher GPAs than students without children, just 37% graduate in six years — a rate more than 20 points below that of nonparents.
Children of currently enrolled college students are witnesses in real time to how institutions support or fail their parents. They see if their parents have enough money to pay rent, buy food and clothes and put gas in their cars. They notice when mom or dad is absent because they’re commuting long distances to class. They can tell if a college has child care centers or other campus spaces that are welcoming to children. They know if mom or dad finishes with a degree — or walks away from the experience deeper in debt and no closer to their goals.
I know these things because I was a child of student-parents.
I spent the bulk of my childhood watching my parents work toward bachelor’s degrees, and their individual journeys came with great difficulty and cost to our family. We experienced it all: student loan debt, lack of affordable housing, mental health issues, child care challenges and underwhelming job prospects after graduation.
This past year, I directed a short film series, “Raising Up,” that celebrates the stories and narratives of student-parents and calls for increased attention for this significant yet largely invisible population who must jump through so many hoops to earn a degree.
And it struck me while working on this project that many of the issues facing higher education such as enrollment and graduation rates could be improved by focusing more attention and resources on supporting parenting students across the finish line. Because when institutions ignore student-parents, they aren’t merely failing one particular student. They’re discouraging their children — and generations to come — from embracing the power and promise of higher education.
To bolster their support of student-parents, institutions should start by counting them. Identifying student-parents is the first step in addressing their needs. Digging into the FAFSA is a start because it asks students about dependents. For a more complete picture, institutions should survey their students during registration and throughout their time on campus because students can become parents at any time.
Institutions should provide child care or help parents pay for it. To cover child care expenses and tuition at a public institution, The Education Trust estimates that a student-parent would have to work 52 hours a week — an impossibility. The research suggests that access to affordable child care can improve persistence and graduation for students raising children. The lack of it is a major driver of college stopouts.
Yet the number of public colleges and universities offering child care services over the past two decades has dropped dramatically to fewer than half. If on-campus child care is no longer feasible due to rising expenses and increased regulations, institutions should include child care expenses in financial aid packages, which already cover a wide range of college-related expenses such as housing and food.
Institutions should remember that even small things can make a big difference. They can designate parking closer to child care centers and classrooms to save student-parents precious time and reduce stress. They can install changing tables in campus bathrooms and provide lactation spaces for new mothers. They can add child-friendly spaces on campus — in the library, student center or outside — to provide opportunities for student-parents to build community.
To make parenting students feel more visible, institutions can design marketing assets that feature students with children and include syllabus statements that welcome students with dependents.
Legacy college admissions, deeply unpopular and now banned in three states and by dozens of institutions, has nearly run its course. It’s time to reframe the definition of legacy in higher education from a practice meant to exclude to one that’s inclusive of student-parents and their children. Supporting student-parents in intentional and meaningful ways gives institutions the opportunity not only to improve outcomes for their current parenting students but also impress upon their children the value of a college education and learning at any age.
The multi-generational stakes are too high to leave student-parents in the shadows. When we see and support student-parents, we also raise up the next generation of students. That’s a legacy worth leaving.
Jaye Fenderson is Director and Producer of “Raising Up,” and the upcoming 6-part docuseries The Class and Co-Founder of Three Frame Media.