The government shutdown may be nearing its end, but the delayed distribution of food assistance funds continues to pose a threat to Americans, including the basic needs security of college students. For now, the future of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program funding remains cloudy amid the federal government’s ongoing court battles against releasing the funds.
Nearly three in five college students experience some form of basic needs insecurity, and two in five experience food insecurity, according to national surveys. In addition, approximately 3.3 million college students are eligible for federal food assistance, according to 2020 data, though a large share do not utilize SNAP due to lack of awareness.
Financial insecurity is one of the top threats to student retention and persistence in higher education, meaning a lapse in support may impede some students’ ability to remain enrolled.
Some colleges and universities have established new or expanded measures to plug the gap in food support for students during the shutdown, including expanding the hours of campus food pantries and promoting emergency grant funding.
University of Minnesota
Minnesota administrators announced on Nov. 3 that students affected by the lack of SNAP funds would be able to access one free meal a day in the residential dining hall until benefits resume. The university estimates fewer than 1,000 individuals on campus are enrolled in SNAP.
In addition, the on-campus food pantry, Nutritious U, will offer expanded hours for the rest of the semester, opening one hour earlier to serve more students.
Franklin Pierce University
The New Hampshire–based university provides basic needs resources at several campus locations—including the library, counseling center and the Office of Outreach and Engagement—to ensure students can have access to food and hygiene products.
The pantry, Rations for Ravens, is funded primarily through donations, both monetary and physical products.
City University of New York
CUNY chancellor Félix Matos Rodríguez announced the university system would allocate additional funding to all campuses “so they can stock extra supplies in their on-site food pantries or provide food assistance in other forms,” he wrote in a Nov. 7 email to students. CUNY students can visit any campus pantry in the system, regardless of their home enrollment, allowing them to access those with the most convenient hours and locations.
The chancellor also urged students to apply for SNAP benefits for future assistance; students at the Bronx campuses (Lehman, Hostos and Bronx Community College) can also participate in a pilot program for community-based resources.
Austin Community College
Nearly half of the students at Austin Community College are food insecure, according to fall 2023 survey data. Since the government shutdown, officials have received up to 500 requests a week for emergency aid from the college’s 74,000 students, as reported by The Austin American-Statesman.
The college has pantries on every campus, called River Food Bites, which now have extended hours to meet students’ needs. ACC also allocated $25,000 in emergency funding to purchase gift cards to the H-E-B grocery store, and staff plan to create meal kits to support students over winter break.
Long Beach City College
The California college expanded services at its food pantry locations, called Viking Vaults, by increasing food options and offering food cards to students who have been impacted by suspended SNAP benefits. Students can also apply for emergency aid, and the college outlined a list of FAQs to address their concerns during the shutdown.
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
UNC offers a variety of basic needs resources during a typical academic year, some of which have been expanded to meet the current surge in demand.
Undergraduate and graduate students can access any of the six on-campus food pantries or nine gardens around campus to pick up food. Eligible students can also receive a free campus dining meal card through a referral form. In addition, the university is piloting a meal swipe donation program for the end of the term so students can share their unused meals with others.
Students can also receive push notifications of events and other free resources through campus events.
Two in three community college students in California lack reliable access to food or housing, according to a new study.
The 2025 Real College CA Student Survey, led by the Community College League of California, found that 46 percent of students are food insecure and 58 percent are housing insecure, which is higher than national estimates: The most recent study from the Hope Center at Temple University found that 41 percent of all college students are food insecure and 48 percent indicated housing insecurity.
Community college students in California reported slightly lower rates of basic needs insecurity in this survey than in 2023, but the number of students needing help remains high.
“It is important to highlight when trends are moving in the right direction, but also that there’s still a lot of work to do,” Katie Brohawn, director of research, evaluation and development at the Research and Planning Group for California Community Colleges, said in a Sept. 24 webinar.
Methodology
Over 76,000 community college students responded to the survey, 3,300 of whom completed it in Spanish. The respondents represented 102 of the 116 institutions in the California Community College system.
The background: For many community college students, financial and mental health concerns can be among the top barriers to completion.
“Before students can thrive academically, their basic needs must be met,” said Tammeil Gilkerson, chancellor of the Peralta Community College District in Oakland, during the webinar.
A fall 2023 study from EdSights found that students at public two-year institutions report the highest levels of financial distress, even though those are among the most affordable institutions across sectors.
One recent study from the Annenberg Institute at Brown University found that nearly 41 percent of community college students experienced food insecurity and 60 percent reported housing insecurity.
Compared to their four-year peers, community college students are also more likely to be from low-income families, racially minoritized, first-generation, immigrant and adult learners. Each of these groups faces unique challenges in their persistence and retention in higher education.
The previous Real College CA survey, administered in 2023, helped college leaders and others in the state identify the role basic needs insecurity plays in students’ academic progress and overall success, particularly as the state was recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic, Gilkerson said.
“While we are no longer in the height of the pandemic, its ripple effects remain and they collide with record housing costs, persistent inflation in food and basic goods, and continued debates about the role of higher education, equity and access in our society,” Gilkerson said.
The data: The latest survey found that only 38 percent of students had high food security, while 46 percent had low or very low food security. The most common concerns students identified were worrying about food running out before they can afford to purchase more (52 percent) or being unable to afford balanced meals (49 percent).
Nearly three in five students said they experienced some level of housing insecurity, and one in five reported being homeless in the past 12 months. While only 8 percent of respondents self-identified as homeless, more said they were couch-surfing (16 percent) or staying at a hotel or motel without a permanent home to return to (6 percent).
Basic needs insecurity also varied by region and institution across the state, with the highest reported rates of food and housing insecurity at 70 percent and 78 percent, respectively. The report did not identify which colleges had the highest and lowest rates of basic need insecurity.
Basic needs insecurities disproportionately impact African American and Black students as well as American Indian or Alaska Native students, compared to their peers. Older students (ages 26 to 30), LGBTQ+ students, independent students, Pell Grant recipients, single parents, former foster youth and those with a history of incarceration were also more likely to indicate food or housing insecurity.
The data also points to a correlation between students’ grades and their rates of basic needs insecurity. While students at all levels had some degree of food or housing insecurity, those earning grades lower than B’s were much more likely to indicate they lacked essential resources.
“If we really are dedicated to improving the academic success of students in our colleges, it’s the basic means that we need to meet. Because if we don’t do that, it doesn’t matter how wonderful a student you are, you’re not going to be able to succeed at the rate that you would otherwise,” Brohawn said.
Not every student is aware of or utilizing campus resources that could address these challenges; over one-third of respondents said they were unaware of basic needs supports at their college, and only 25 percent had accessed the Basic Needs Center. Among students who used resources, most did so to obtain food.
Identifying solutions: Over the past five years, California has made strides to better support learners with basic needs insecurity, recognizing housing challenges as a significant barrier to student success.
The state launched a rapid rehousing program to support learners at public institutions including the CCC, California State University and University of California systems. A 2022 bill began requiring colleges to stock discounted health supplies, such as toiletries and birth control, addressing students’ basic needs in a new way.
A pilot program also provides cash to financially vulnerable students at California colleges, including those who were formerly incarcerated, former foster youth and parents.
The report’s authors recommended providing targeted interventions for vulnerable populations and enhancing accessibility and awareness of supports, as well as advocating for systemic changes, such as increased funding for basic needs initiatives or policies that provide living wages and affordable housing for students.
An estimated 59 percent of all college students have experienced some form of housing or food insecurity in the past year, according to 2024 data from the Hope Center at Temple University. Closer to three in four students have lacked access to other basic needs, such as mental health care, childcare, transportation or technology.
At Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, it was students who first noticed their peers needed additional resources.
Spencer Moser, MCLA’s assistant dean for student growth and well-being, teaches a leadership capstone course in which students complete a community-based service project. “One group of students was aware that some of their peers were attending classes hungry,” he recalled.
As part of their assignment, students researched available resources to address basic needs insecurity and identified the need for a campus pantry.
“The program started as a drawer at my desk,” Moser said. “Then it grew to fill a shelving unit, a closet and eventually its own space on campus.”
Now, MCLA hosts an Essential Needs Center (ENC) on campus for any student who may face financial barriers to acquiring food, housing or other necessary items.
How it works: Located in the campus center, the Essential Needs Center is open 24 hours a day from Monday to Thursday, with more limited hours on Fridays. The center provides students with food, housing and transportation assistance, seasonal clothes, and more.
Students can utilize a variety of resources to address food insecurity, including grab-and-go or instant meals and free meal swipes for the dining hall, as well as help with their SNAP applications. The center’s website also provides links to recipes using MCLA food pantry staples to help students with minimal cooking experience prepare nutritious meals.
One of the unique offerings of MCLA’s center is a build-a-bundle initiative that allows students to request a variety of personal health, kitchen, bathroom, bedroom or cleaning items, as well as school supplies. Students can submit a form online requesting supplies ranging from a first-aid kit to baking supplies and a bath mat.
The pantry has a small budget from the college, which is supplemented by grants, a partnership with the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts and donor support. Interested donors can give nonperishable food items, toiletries or monetary contributions.
Student supported: The ENC first started with students looking to support their classmates, and student leadership continues to be at the heart of the center’s work.
“Students manage the inventory, make sure their peers know about this resource, staff the center,” Moser said. “The center is student-run and -managed, designed to be student-centric due to the belief that students know best what students’ needs are.”
The pantry sees 400 to 500 students use the pantry regularly, for a total of 1,313 visits between November 2023 and January 2025, Moser said.
In fall 2024 alone, ENC logged 729 visits—including from 96 first-time visitors—and distributed over 2,600 items.
Other Models of Success
Basic needs insecurity impacts college students across the country, hindering their academic progress and forcing them to choose between educational pursuits and personal needs. Here are some examples of how other colleges and universities are promoting student well-being.
Anne Arundel Community College students in Maryland created a cookbook featuring items exclusively from the campus pantry, many reflecting their traditions and cultures.
Pace University offers a monthly mobile market for students, faculty and staff to receive free food items that cannot be stored for longer in the permanent campus pantry.
The University of California, Davis, piloted a discounted food truck on campus at lunchtime, allowing students to receive a hot meal at a pay-what-you-can price.
Virginia Commonwealth University established mini pantries across campus with grab-and-go food items, modeled off the concept of a little free library.
An estimated one in five college students is a parent, juggling coursework with caring for a dependent and, often, holding down a paid job. The competing priorities of working and caregiving students can put them at heightened risk for stopping out or quitting higher education, requiring additional investment from colleges and universities to help them succeed.
A recent report from Trellis Strategies, using data from its Fall Financial Wellness Survey, identifies key trends among student caregivers, the role that time poverty can play in their academic pursuits and recommendations for additional supports.
Who are caregiving students? Eighteen percent of respondents indicated they were a parent or guardian of a child, or approximately 9,500 of the survey’s 53,000-plus respondents. Seven percent of respondents said they were a caregiver to another individual, not a dependent, and 6 percent said they provided care for a child and another individual, identifying them as a double caregiver.
Women were more likely to say they were caregivers (73 percent) than non-caregivers (55 percent), and more than twice as many Black students indicated they had caregiver (27 percent) or double-caregiver (34 percent) responsibilities, compared to non-caregivers (12 percent). Two-year students were more likely to report being a caregiver (25 percent) than their four-year peers (13 percent).
A majority of non-caregivers in Trellis’s study were under 24 years old (84 percent), but caregivers were more evenly represented across age brackets from 18 to 45, representing a variety of identities and priorities. For example, younger caregivers were more likely to say they spent less than 20 hours per week providing care for their dependents, compared to their peers aged 25 to 40, but young parents were also more likely to say they missed at least one day of class due to a lack of childcare (32 percent), versus their peers in their early 30s (27 percent).
Competing priorities: A high percentage of caregiving students are also employed; 71 percent worked while enrolled and 85 percent agreed it was important for them to support their family financially while in college. In addition to supporting themselves, caregiving students said they offered financial support to their spouse (34 percent), parents or guardians (24 percent), or other family members (22 percent).
Affordability is a top barrier to student persistence nationally, but the cost of higher education can be an even greater burden for students with dependents. A 2014 report by EdTrust found that a student parent working a minimum-wage job would have to work 52 hours per week to afford both childcare and net tuition at a public four-year institution in the U.S.
Caregiving students were also more likely to consider themselves a “worker that goes to school” (63 percent) than “a student who works” (37 percent)—the direct inverse of non-caregiving students, a majority of whom said they were a student who works (72 percent). Sixty-eight percent of student parents who were employed reported working more than 40 hours per week.
“The time poverty caused by work and caregiving commitments can have a substantial impact on the student experience,” according to the report.
The financial and personal pressures of being a caregiver can also impact a student’s academic performance; 24 percent of parenting students said they missed at least one day of class in the past semester due to a lack of childcare.
Parenting students are more likely to report financial insecurity; 70 percent indicated they would have difficulty securing $500 in cash for an emergency expense. More than four in five caregivers said they’d run out of money at least once in the past year, and nearly 40 percent ran out of money eight or more times in the past year.
Seventy-two percent of caregivers reported experiencing some level of basic needs insecurity, including food insecurity, housing insecurity or homelessness. Research from New America and the Princeton Eviction Lab published earlier this year found that student parents who faced eviction were 23 percent less likely to complete a bachelor’s degree and more likely to experience a lower quality of life.
ED Cuts CCAMPIS for Some Colleges
The Child Care Access Means Parents in School (CCAMPIS) program aims to provide campus-based childcare services for low-income student parents, but President Trump’s proposed 2026 budget would eliminate program funding.
The Department of Education this week said it discontinued some grants for CCAMPIS because “they would have taught children about gender identity and racial justice and didn’t hire staff based on merit,” according to The Washington Post.
Supporting success: Based on their findings, Trellis researchers believe institutional investment in caregivers could improve retention, academic success and degree completion for parenting students. They suggest collecting and disaggregating data on student enrollment to identify caregivers, including dependent-care expenses in students’ cost of attendance and providing priority registration for caregivers.
Childcare remains a critical need, but institutions can help bridge the gap through on-campus facilities, sharing information about community childcare resources and referral services, and partnering with community organizations for support resources.
For years, Priscilla Villarreal has fought to hold officials accountable when they violate Americans’ First Amendment rights, including the Laredo officials who threw her in jail just for asking police to verify facts as part of her everyday news reporting.
Priscilla sued, and last fall, the Supreme Court gave her a shot at justice, granting her petition and ordering the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit to reconsider Priscilla’s case against the officials who tried to turn routine journalism into a felony.
But in April, a divided Fifth Circuit doubled down, holding the Laredo officials had qualified immunity, a doctrine that often shields government officials from lawsuits even when they violate the Constitution. In his dissent, one judge lamented that the court had simply reinstated what it “mistakenly said before, just in different packaging.”
So Priscilla and FIRE are doubling down, too. We’re heading back to the Supreme Court, asking it to make crystal clear that Americans have every ability to hold officials accountable for violating core First Amendment rights — like the right to ask government officials questions, and publish what they share.
That’s exactly what Priscilla has been doing for years, reporting on local crime, traffic, and other news for her 200,000 Facebook followers. She’s made a name for herself too. The New York Timesdescribes her as “arguably the most influential journalist in Laredo.” But despite her experience, her journey from Laredo, a city on the Mexican border, to the Supreme Court has been a long one.
In 2017, she reported on a high-profile suicide and a fatal car accident. For both stories, Priscilla received tips from private citizens and verified those facts by asking a Laredo police officer. The First Amendment squarely protects this routine journalistic practice. After all, at the heart of the First Amendment is the freedom to ask government officials and institutions questions, even tough ones.
Angered by Priscilla’s reporting on these incidents, Laredo officials tried to bully her into silence by arresting her. But with no legitimate basis on which to charge her with a crime, police and prosecutors turned to a decades-old statute that no local official had ever enforced.
That law makes it a felony to ask for or receive non-public information from a government official with the intent to benefit from that information. Laredo police and prosecutors pursued two warrants for Priscilla’s arrest under the statute. In short, Priscilla went to jail for basic journalism.
So in 2019, she sued the officials for violating her First and Fourth Amendment rights. As Judge James Ho later remarked in his dissent at the Fifth Circuit, it “should’ve been an easy case for denying qualified immunity.”
But it hasn’t been. A Texas federal district court dismissed her claims on the basis of qualified immunity. A three-judge panel of the Fifth Circuit reversed that decision, denying qualified immunity. But when the whole Fifth Circuit reheard the case at the government’s request, it reversed the panel ruling in a splintered 9-7 decision.
In 2024, Priscilla and FIRE took her fight to the Supreme Court for the first time. The Court granted Priscilla’s petition to review the Fifth Circuit’s decision and ordered it to reconsider her case in light of the Supreme Court’s 2024 decision, Gonzalez v. Trevino. That decision affirmed the ability to sue government officials when they retaliate against protected speech by selectively enforcing statutes.
But last April, a splintered Fifth Circuit decided against Priscilla again, granting qualified immunity to the officials who defied longstanding Supreme Court precedent and core principles of American liberty by orchestrating her arrest.
The Fifth Circuit’s ruling not only denies Priscilla justice, but gives police and prosecutors a free pass to turn core First Amendment rights into a crime. That result cannot stand. And that’s why Priscilla and FIRE are going back to the Supreme Court.
Priscilla’s fearless reporting has made her a local “folk hero.” Now, she’s channeling the same grit into defending not just her own rights, but the First Amendment rights of all Americans.
About three in five college students experienced some level of basic needs insecurity during the 2024 calendar year, according to survey data from Trellis Strategies. Over half (58 percent) of respondents said they experienced one or more forms of basic needs insecurity in the past 12 months.
Student financial challenges can negatively impact academic achievement and students’ ability to remain enrolled. About 57 percent of students said they’ve had to choose between college expenses and basic needs, according to a 2024 report from Ellucian.
While a growing number of colleges and universities are expanding support for basic needs resource centers—driven in part by state legislation that requires more accommodations for students in peril—not every campus dedicates funds to the centers. A 2024 survey by Swipe Out Hunger found that of 300-plus campus pantries, two in five were funded primarily through donations. Only 5 percent of food pantries had a dedicated budget from their institution as a primary source of funding.
Inside Higher Ed compiled four examples of institutions that are considering new or innovative ways to address students’ financial wellbeing and basic needs on campus.
Penn State University—School Supplies for Student Success
Previous research shows that when students have their relevant course materials provided on day one, they are more likely to pass their classes and succeed. Penn State’s Chaiken Center for Student Success launched a School Supplies for Student Success program that offers learners access to free supplies, including notebooks, writing utensils and headphones, to help them stay on track academically.
Students are able to visit the student success center on the University Park campus every two weeks to acquire items, which are also available at two other locations on campus. Learners attending Penn State Altoona and Penn State Hazleton can visit their respective student success center for supplies, as well.
The program is funded by a Barnes & Noble College Grant program and is sustained through physical and monetary donations from the university community.
Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts—Essential Needs Center
The Essential Needs Center was developed from a Service Leadership Capstone course, which required students to complete a community-based service project. One group of students explored rates of basic needs insecurity and established a food pantry to remedy hunger on campus.
“The program started as a drawer at my desk,” said Spencer Moser, assistant dean for Student Growth and Wellbeing, who taught the course. “Then it grew to fill a shelving unit, a closet and eventually its own space on campus.”
The center, now a one-stop shop for basic needs support on campus, provides students with small appliances, storage containers, personal care items and seasonal clothing, as well as resources to address housing and transportation needs, including emergency funding grants. Students can also apply for a “basic needs bundle” to select specific items they may require.
Paid student employees maintain the center but it’s also left “unstaffed” at some hours to address the stigma of seeking help for basic supplies. Between November 2023 and January 2025, over 1,300 students engaged with the center.
University of New Hampshire—Financial Wellness
A lack of financial stability can also have a negative impact on student thriving and success. To support students’ learning and financial wellbeing, the University of New Hampshire created an online digital hub that provides links to a budget worksheet, financial wellness self-evaluation, college cost calculator and loan simulator.
Students can also schedule an appointment to talk with an educator to discuss financial wellness or engage in a financial wellness workshop.
Roxbury Community College—the Rox Box
Most colleges operate on an academic calendar, with available hours and resources falling when class is in session. Roxbury Community College in Massachusetts launched a new initiative in winter 2023 to ensure students who were off campus for winter break didn’t experience food insecurity.
Before the break, staff at the college’s food pantry, the Rox Box, handed out Stop & Shop gift cards and grab-and-go meals, as well as a list of local places students could visit for meals over break.
Do you have a wellness intervention that might help others promote student success? Tell us about it.
There are over 4,000 universities and colleges in the United States employing over 1.5 million faculty, over half of which are either tenured or on tenure track. The National Center for Educational Statistics estimates that there are 160,000 assistant professors at any one time, so given the approximate time to tenure, it is therefore reasonable to conclude that there over 20,000 newly minted faculty hitting the ground running every year on their quest for academic establishment—most of them with relatively little preparation, training, or even awareness of the rigors and pitfalls of the tenure track journey ahead.
Much has been written about the substantive pedagogic aspects of the profession—research methodologies, student success and satisfaction, diversity and inclusiveness, etc.—but relatively little about the fundamental survival strategies necessary in the early days of a fledgling appointment while struggling with a new environment, a hefty teaching load, and demands of students and colleagues. Balancing these multiple demands can be stressful; mistakes can be made and the success rate in some disciplines can be unnervingly low.
Here, then, are 10 very basic, practical strategies for new faculty to consider during their early exploratory quests in the profession, based upon my experience of faculty development over the past 40 years. They are not necessarily appropriate for all institutions or all disciplines but offer a preliminary checklist of actions that put the challenges of academic career building in a realistic perspective. Plunging headlong into the process without any planning, forethought, or guidance is not a recipe for success, so a little reflective thinking beforehand may be prudent, even for the most talented and confident amongst you.
1. Know Your Institution
Even if you land a job at the institution that educated you, take time to find out the official philosophical and administrative underpinnings of the place. There are considerable differences between private institutions and public ones, shared governance and union campuses, and factors such as size, program mix, and location that will determine the character of each institution. Start with reading the rules, regulations, byelaws, and any recent accreditation reports that are available. Review the official website, recent news stories, and major committee minutes and note any interesting programs and initiatives that define the academic environment. Familiarization with your department and campus can help ease your transition, enable you to avoid any obvious political pitfalls, and concentrate on the immediate challenges of the new job.
2. Know Your Colleagues
If you didn’t do it before the interview, find out more about your new departmental colleagues. Web searches are quick and easy, and more detailed information on faculty backgrounds, achievements, and curricula can often be found in recent accreditation reports. Showing a general awareness of and interest in your colleagues’ work is flattering (although, should not extend to an appearance of unhealthy obsession) and can indicate shared fields of interest that could complement your own teaching and research agenda.
3. Find a Friend
The tenure process should not be a hazing exercise, and senior colleagues and academic leaders have a responsibility to mentor new faculty. However, institutions vary in their commitment to faculty development. Sadly, some still rely on the sink-or-swim approach, but others have excellent, supportive approaches to developing their new talent, so check into institutional and departmental programs that might be on offer. If none exist, explore national opportunities for mentorship within your discipline or, if appropriate, ask your departmental leader or senior colleagues to take on the role, meeting with you regularly and providing feedback and guidance.
4. Build a Network
A mentor is good, but a whole cohort of colleagues at the departmental, institutional, and national/international level can be invaluable as you shape your academic persona. Consciously seek out appropriate senior faculty whose work you admire at scholarly meetings, conferences, and online and try to engage them. Ask about their work and whether you may send them your own recent accomplishments in teaching or research. This might appear pushy and may be met with indifference, but you’d be surprised how willing some really impressive scholars can be in nurturing the next generation. If they know about (and are impressed by) your work, they may even see opportunities to work with you collaboratively or nominate you for guest lectures or conference roles.
5. Make a Plan
There is always a danger of trying to do too much too fast in the quest for tenure, so it is important to pace yourself (see #7). As a preliminary exercise, try writing a first draft of a case statement:
outlining your academic focus,
how you are exploring it in teaching, research and service,
and listing your collective accomplishments in each area to date.
Reflect on how you might continue this trajectory over the next few years to establish what you hope will be an adequate record of achievement to merit tenure. As you are unsure what that is, share the plan—which should only be a short, reflective narrative of your academic essence and activities—with your mentors and network to make sure you’re on the right track.
6. Juggling the Big Three
One of the fundamental challenges new faculty wrestle with is maintaining a balance between the seemingly conflicting demands of teaching, research, and service. On many campuses and in some disciplines, research and scholarly activity are likely to be emphasized as the primary vehicles for tenure success. However, this approach may seem disadvantageous to those who entered the profession for a love of teaching and can also result in the role of service being diminished or trivialized (see #9).
Obviously, consult with your colleagues about the appropriate balance—they after all will play a major role in your future—but rather than compartmentalize the three areas, think creatively about blending them. Can you ‘piggyback’ your efforts in teaching, research, and service and form a coherent whole that exceeds the sum of the parts?
Can, for example, student work completed in a teaching assignment form the basis of scholarly papers, exhibitions, or newspaper/journal articles? Can the work be submitted for awards for either students or yourself for teaching excellence? Similarly, could service activities for a community group or similar organization generate grant funding or recognition that could be expanded into a paper or article?
This approach, which requires some flexibility and ingenuity, helps to elevate teaching and service by transforming their outcomes into more conventional means of enquiry and recognition more consistent with tenurability. It enables an individual to concentrate on their field of focus, avoid seemingly pointless work, and still develop a coherent career profile embracing all the aspects of a well-rounded academic.
7. Pace Yourself
One downside of thinking a lot about your career and tenure too early—such as reading too many cautionary articles like this—is an increased awareness and subsequent panic in the face of the rigorous challenges ahead. Theoretically, sound foreknowledge of the process and careful, reflective planning should minimize career-focused worries and free up time for the real joys of teaching, research, and practice. Establish your annual and long term gameplans, engage regularly with your colleagues, and remember, there are six long years to achieve them all.
Of course, there may be pitfalls, missteps, and diversions into academic cul de sacs along the way. That big research grant or killer article for the top journal in your field you’ve spent the summer preparing? Both rejected—but don’t panic. Nothing is ever really wasted. Can the work be resubmitted or sent in a modified form to another funding agency or publication, less prestigious or financially impressive maybe, but still a potential win. Can either be reconfigured into a conference paper or online outlet? Could it be the genesis of a new course or even a news story? There are a number of ways to demonstrate acceptance of your academic worth (see #8). They may have less scholarly impact, but by assembling a portfolio of success indicators of varying perceived worth, the collective impact can add up to a significant body of work.
8. Making the Grade
What do I need to do to get tenure? Is this enough? These are questions asked by generations of faculty, understandably looking for quantifiable benchmarks of achievement. Obviously, there is no answer that fits all. Some disciplines and departments may quantify their standards—which journals for publication, how much grant funding, etc. But many are less specific and leave it to the candidate to prove their case. So, what if that prestigious journal rejects your masterpiece after two years of consideration? Or the national granting agency you are depending on for support is cutting back or refocusing its funding elsewhere? Or your book proposal is turned down by a major publisher? Consider other means of demonstrating your quality and achievement. An individual’s worth should not be reduced to a list of publications or a tally of funding successes, and other means of determining impact and peer recognition are possible. This, by the way, is a personal perspective that may only be appropriate for some disciplines. Discuss it with your colleagues first, but consider framing your academic worth in three ways:
a. Peer Review
Obviously, the most recognized form of demonstrating quality is through the impartiality of blind peer review, preferably by the most recognized publications, grants organizations or awards programs in your field. However, putting all your eggs in one basket is a risky proposition. Don’t focus exclusively on the best, but explore other opportunities at the same time. Building a portfolio of more modest achievements that can supplement major accomplishments (or replace them if necessary) and can collectively demonstrate an impact on your discipline.
b. Peer Approval
This is probably not a recognized criterion, but is based upon your worth as an academic, rather than solely on your published work. You may be invited to review a book, to chair a workshop, or give a lecture at another institution. In such cases, it is not just your work but your reputation that is being validated. A cluster of such invitations and activities can be a helpful supplement to your peer reviewed work to demonstrate your impact upon the discipline, a process that can be accelerated by establishing a network of colleagues nationally and even internationally as early as possible (see # 4).
c. Dissemination and Impact
All too often, discussion of a tenure candidate revolves around the number of publications or grants rather than how the individual is enriching the department’s teaching excellence and adding to the advancement of their discipline. Remember, your work can reach broader audiences than just your department, so think about the differences you have made and the impact you have created. For example, has your work been included in the curricula of other institutions? Has your work been referenced in other publications? Have you been asked to consult on local or national issues, or has your opinion/input been sought on discipline-related matters? Have your ideas been implemented in tangible ways, such as the creation of a neighborhood park or a local sustainability plan?
Remember, this three-point breakdown is a personal one and tenure criteria vary considerably across campuses and disciplines. As always, check this viewpoint out with your colleagues. Even if it is not appropriate to your situation, it may be useful in opening a dialogue as to how it differs from their understanding of tenurability, and in clarifying their expectations of your performance.
9. Making a Difference
Service always appears last in the trinity of academic expectations and is all too often sidelined to perfunctory appearances on a moribund committee that meets infrequently (I remember my time on the Contagious Diseases Committee with mixed emotions). Frankly, this is a waste of time, opportunity, and initiative.
Service can be defined in a number of ways, some of which will hopefully match your interests and passions. It can be undertaken to enrich your department, your institution, your academic discipline, your professional affiliation, or your community. Look for opportunities to constructively engage and bring your strengths to bear on relevant issues to make a positive contribution. And remember ‘piggybacking’ (See #6). Can you focus your coursework on real world issues of the community, or reflectively rework that governmental report or committee action into a paper or article?
10. Getting Ready for Tenure
Obviously, it’s way too early to spend a lot of time on tenure preparation, although there are a couple of steps you could take now that will make the final push a little easier.
Firstly, review the tenure regulations for your department (and institution) and familiarize yourself with their requirements. Ask your colleagues about any questions you have, especially the ones who have recently passed through the process themselves. Being aware of the parameters should demystify the process and help to avoid any pitfalls or unpleasant surprises in a few years.
Secondly, start collecting evidence (articles, papers, press cuttings, curricula, student work etc.) of your academic achievements and activities now, while they are fresh in your mind and easily accessible. Don’t be too selective and keep as much as possible—a modest contribution to a local newsletter isn’t much on its own but, added to a batch of similar activities, may grow into an impressive collection. It may not, but it is easier to discard something later on than try to find evidence of it if you change your mind. Collect all press releases, journal statistics (readership, approval rate, editorial board members, etc.), student work examples, and other materials that might be useful in your tenure documentation. Add to the file as you progress. You do not want to be scrabbling about collecting materials in the final months before tenure when files may be hard to access, editors may have retired or passed, or materials may have been discarded or long forgotten.
Finally, consider your approach to seeking tenure as a process akin to an attorney making a legal case. If you prepared a rudimentary case statement in your first year as recommended (see # 5), this one-page narrative, updated and refined each year, provides an effective introduction to your documentation. It should clearly justify your role within your department and your discipline and enumerate your contributions to both, in quantitative and qualitative terms, providing evidence of success. It is a powerful route map to what has become a complicated document, and an early start on outlining the case statement guides your progress through tenure track.
There is no magic formula of performance that can guarantee tenure and, ultimately, a worthwhile academic career. Too many variables connected to the discipline, institution and personal circumstances will be major determinants in success or failure. However, reflective planning at the beginning of the process—a review of the basic issues outlined here coupled, of course, with full engagement of your colleagues—can help to set the parameters for sound progress, prevent wandering into academic backwaters, or getting lost in the minutiae of everyday activities. Good luck.
Robert Greenstreet, PhD, is professor and dean emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He has authored/coauthored over 200 papers and articles and 8 books, including The Junior Faculty Handbook 2nd Edition (Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture 2009)
During the 2016-2017 school year, the Brothers to Sisters Club at Compton College reserved a portion of their meetings for “Real Talk.” This allowed students to share their current feelings and experiences. During one of these meetings, two students spoke up and shared that they were homeless. This moment inspired Joshua Jackson and Dayshawn Louden, then student leaders at Compton College, to begin campaigning and advocating for student housing and increased basic needs on campus.
“Immediately, Dayshawn and I went into planning,” says Jackson,
Eight years later, Compton College is breaking ground on a 250+ bed housing facility, becoming the first community college in Los Angeles County to offer campus housing to its students.
CCCD Student Housing RenderingCompton College President and CEO Dr. Keith Curry says Jackson and Louden were worried about their peers’ lack of basic needs and immediately brought their concerns to him.
“It was a great conversation when they first brought it forward, and their question was, ‘How do we do it,” says Curry in an interview with Diverse. “I give them the credit for it because they got me to think about it differently and what we could do. I’m a former student activist, so seeing student activists seeing what we need was good.”
Jackson and Louden had just begun their roles as Compton College’s Associated Student Body President and Vice President when they approached Curry.
“We were motivated, and I think we felt that space gave us the courage to believe that we could create change,” says Jackson. “Our roles also gave us the conviction that we should.”
Rallying The Community
After their conversation with Curry, the student leaders called on their community at Compton College for support. Under Curry’s leadership, their efforts grew into a larger task force committed to addressing housing, food, and basic needs for the student body. Their next step was to identify Compton College students who identified as homeless.
“We took it upon ourselves,” says Louden. “I recall me and Joshua going into classrooms to say, ‘hey, utilize your voice,’ because the school can’t address a problem if there’s no need for it.”
Louden says that their roles as campus leaders positioned them to advocate for their fellow students and the longevity of the institution.
“Housing was like a five-to-six-year plan, but to address the needs that we could see that Compton College had, we pushed for a pantry, opening the showers that were going unused by the football team, and supplying bathroom kits and supplies,” he says.
Within weeks, Compton College began implementing additional programs designed to serve students’ needs.
Dr. Keith Curry“It’s not just about a lack of physical space to live. It’s about the absence of opportunity, the absence of safety, the absence of stability,” says Louden. “This was not just about providing resources. This was about fostering community and belonging.”
Curry, who previously served as the Dean of Student Services at Compton College and has been instrumental in the college’s growth, success, and rebuilding, says that his role in this process was to also be courageous.
“I announced at one of our professional development days the need to build student housing, and I think people were like, ‘What is he talking about,’” he recalls. “I said, ‘we’ll be the first ones to build housing,’ and sometimes you have to dream. Sometimes you have to say stuff and get people united because you said it.”
Curry also became one of the founding chairpersons of the Chief Executive Officers of the California Community Colleges’ Affordability, Food & Housing Access Taskforce in spring 2018. This group provides system-wide recommendations to address housing and food insecurities for California Community College students.
“I was advocating statewide for basic needs, so then I was able to fold in that advocacy to include food and also housing,” says Curry.
Once Compton College gathered all of the data and support they needed, college leaders submitted a proposal. Curry, however, was intentional about the request. “I think the most important piece to this was we didn’t ask for the planning grant,” remembers Curry. “We went directly for the project funding grant. We went for the entire dollar amount, and that was the strategic plan.”
Over the course of about five years, what began as a conversation in a student club meeting eventually became a reality.
Celebrating In Community
In June 2022, California lawmakers moved to include a student housing grant totaling $80,389,000 in the 2022-2023 State Budget for the Compton Community College District to build their proposed 250+ bed student housing facility.
“We proved our critics wrong,” says Curry, who has emerged as a national thought-leader on community colleges. “When we’re talking about student housing and having conversations, we were able to take a dream that some people thought was not possible and made it possible for the community that we serve.”
The Compton College Housing Project Groundbreaking Ceremony took place last month, a win that those involved hope to share with the entire Compton community and Compton Community College District (CCCD).
“We’re serving Black and Brown individuals within our community, and for me, it gives these students hope,” says Curry. “They can see a college campus that looks like a four-year college with new facilities but also with student housing. That means that they will not be looked at as less than.”
Phase one of the 86,000-square-foot building will include three floors of affordable student living quarters with 100 percent occupancy designated for students in need. The facility will provide three types of living configurations: 50 double-room units with access to shared bathrooms and common spaces, 50 double-suite units with bathrooms and access to common spaces, and 50 studio units for single occupants. The student housing will also include study areas, lounges and shared kitchens.
“We’re showing other colleges that this can be done,” says Curry. “Compton is the model for that. When you think about our history, we’re the first community college in the state of California whose accreditation was revoked, and to go from that in 2006 to be where we’re at now and to be on the cutting edge, that tells you that transformation can happen, but transformation can happen in communities where we look like the students.”
Curry marks this moment as one of hope, not just for Compton but for communities of color all over the country.
“We’re always criticizing what we don’t do in our communities. Now we see what we can do, and that gives people hope that change is coming,” he says. “But also, this gives the students the opportunity to say look at my backyard, and my community college matters.”
Big things have been on the horizon for Compton College for some time now. Just last year, rapper Kendrick Lamar surprised 2024 Compton College graduating students as their graduation speaker.
“If you look at our video from graduation, you can see the words from Kendrick Lamar where he talks about the value of our degree and how important it is and what it means to be a Compton College graduate,” says Curry. “It gives our students hope. When you’re told you’re not good enough, and now you see a college in your community that is doing stuff that makes you proud, that means you know you’re a part of something that’s bigger than us.”
Phase one is just the beginning of Compton College 2035, a comprehensive master plan outlining the college’s plans to provide students with state-of-the-art facilities, including a physical education complex and a visual and performing arts complex, over the next decade and beyond.
“The city is already going up, as you can imagine why, but this is another notch to add under the belt of why Compton is just a historic and beautiful place,” says Jackson.
Serving As A Model For Other Community Colleges In California And Beyond
In addition to Compton College being the first community college in LA County to have student housing, the housing project is also the first prefabricated modular student housing project that is design-approved by the California Division of the State Architect.
A prefabricated modular means that most of the building will be built thousands of miles away.
“It’s a unique project,” says David Lelie, senior project manager with Gafcon, the construction management company managing the project. “They’re going to build them in a factory in Idaho, and then they’re going to ship them by truck to our site and use a crane to place them.”
This model is designed to decrease construction time and disruptions.
“What we’re saving is sustainability and time nuisance for the students,” says Lelie. “So, instead of bugging students for two years, you’re dropping all those modules into place in two weeks.”
Once the building is placed on campus, the exterior and final touches will be completed, which is projected to be done by May 2027. This will save about six months of traditional construction time.
“It’s a seed, and eventually other campuses will use this idea and this method of prefab modular in order to build their student housing,” says Lelie. “Yes, we’re housing 250 students, but now other colleges, especially in California, can take this model and replicate it, and every time you replicate it, it’s like a car, they get less and less expensive.”
HPI, which is the architecture company responsible for some of the first non-modular student housing on community college campuses, took on this project to continue building cutting-edge experiences and homes for community college students.
They wanted the design to provide not only a place to sleep but also academic support and integration into the broader campus.
“As we learned about how to deliver modular student housing, it was really taking the program that [Compton College] had already established in terms of number of beds and the types of beds and then looking at how we could do that in a way that created community,” says Larry Frapell, principal and president of HPI architecture.
“We wanted the amenities to be easy to get to, a combination of both indoor and outdoor spaces, and a sense of security.”
HPI has a long history of serving higher education and, specifically, larger community colleges.
“We have a good understanding of not only the need for housing but how housing relates to community college students and how to integrate that in a community college campus,” says Frapell. “It’s part of a greater campus and part of a greater community, so we hope that this becomes a home for students and that this is a desirable place to live.”
Jackson and Louden are proud of the legacy they left to be continued for generations to come. Jackson says that he recently spoke with the two students who inspired the project’s advocacy.
“They’re housed, and they’re happy,” he says. “So, I’m grateful to be a part of history in this regard. I’m grateful for what I call following a tradition of activism that’s taking place at Compton College and just through our history as Black folks generally. We didn’t know it at the time, but that’s what we were doing. We just wanted to help.”
Louden believes now, more than ever, that Compton’s faith in humanity is one of its superpowers.
“Compton made that choice as an institution to restore faith in humanity,” says Louden, “and in the words of Compton College’s late great Dr. Joseph Lewis, ‘Compton makes the world go around.’”
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