ReEntry and Education, Part 4
The consequences of indifference
As you are planning for a campus-based reentry program, one of your more complex tasks is learning about your college and its bureaucracy: What relationships, understandings, and agreements need to be in place to support students returning to the community?
This question is not as straightforward as it may seem, and is compounded by college rules, policies, procedure. If the college is also a state entity, those rules, laws, and policies may also come into play, as well as all of the federal governance around financial aid, FERPA, Title IX, Title VII and so on. All students and employees of the college are bound by most of these, but there are certain places in college process and life that may require more attention so that your students aren’t summarily dismissed.
It'll be easier if I tell you about Alex, and their attempt to become a first time, first generation college student. It has been a few years and it is possible I have misremembered some details, but the larger story is the point.
When I had been a navigator for about six months, a student (I’ll call them Alex) showed up wanting to enroll for Spring term. They had been incarcerated at 17, were now 29, had had no school opportunities while imprisoned, and were a perfect candidate to start out with our transitional studies department. Alex wanted to start a vocational program in the fall, so they did transitional studies in the Spring, then a reading/writing refresher in the Summer. Alex did well in their studies, was accepted in the program they wanted, and enrolled for a Fall start.
Things fell apart in August.
Alex was on parole when things went sideways, so they ended up first in the local jail, then sent back to a longer-term facility. Around the beginning of the Fall term I found out about this from Alex’s parole officer. I immediately checked and saw that Alex was still enrolled in classes and contacted both program staff and the registrar to try and get them unenrolled. I explained the situation, showed them the communication from the PO, but they said there was nothing they could do.
Here are the initial consequences of that decision to do nothing:
Even though Alex did not attend a single day, they were not automatically dropped from the course. This means they received a 0.0 grade, which has consequences financially and on a transcript.
I cannot speak to whether the instructor marked them present (which is certainly unethical, if not fraudulent), but they had to know Alex never attended a single day.
Because Alex was unable to refuse the financial aid award AND was still enrolled in the course, at least a portion of their financial aid was disbursed. I am not sure about the federal funds (I don’t know if Alex set up a direct deposit), but college and state grant funds were disbursed, probably to a financial aid debit card. Alex had no access to those funds or that card.
When I looked at Alex’s account the following term, I saw that they now owed the college money. How could such a thing happen, you ask? Alex didn’t attend a single day that Fall, buy a single book, or pick up a single piece of program materials! You are correct, but those facts apparently don’t matter, or they didn’t to the people working at that college.
Because Alex was left enrolled and received a 0.0, they didn’t meet the grade threshold necessary to NOT have to pay back state and local grants. What does that mean? Well, in order to receive Federal financial aid (Pell funding), at least at that time, students had to maintain a 2.0 GPA. If they fell below, they were given some time to appeal and get their grades back up but if they didn’t, they would lose their aid.
State and local grant dollars, which are specific to each college, often have similar rules, i.e. students have to be Pell eligible in order to qualify for grant funds (funds they don’t have to repay). In this case, because Alex “failed” the course, they DID have to repay the grant funds (or some portion of them). Because they were left enrolled in the course, they were also charged for program supplies (which they would have paid for with financial aid funds), and those also were now considered past due.
So even though that money might still have been sitting on a card somewhere (I don’t know if cards expire or, if they do, what happens to the funds), Alex now owed the college money for a course they never attended, and for supplies they never got.
Alex now also has a 0.0 grade on their transcript (I don’t remember how many credit hours), which is close to a disaster in terms of grade recovery. Trying to get high enough grades in enough credit hours to balance a 0.0 into a GPA above a 2.0 is difficult, and takes several terms, at best. Even if a student gets outstanding grades, they can remain on academic probation for two or more terms because the 0.0 can drag a higher GPA below 2.0.
They could possibly take the same course again and try to replace the grade, but remember that they now also owe the college a debt that will likely end up in collections. Alex would have to pay back that debt before enrolling again and if I were them, I would not even consider such a thing. Who WOULD want to pay for a course they never took, pay for supplies they never got? Who would think that a college would keep them enrolled in a course when they didn’t show up for a single day?
Even now, years later, I am beside myself with rage when I think about this situation.
At every point, I was certain SOMEONE would say “Oh, yes, this is not right, let’s get this fixed” but no one did. When I went back to the registrar about the academic appeal, I was told I couldn’t do it, that Alex would need to file. But Alex was imprisoned somewhere and didn’t even know what had happened. I sent them some mail, but between being shuffled around the jail and then to a longer-term facility, I didn’t know if they would ever get those letters.
And how do I explain all these consequences that could so easily have been avoided? How do I explain that I couldn’t convince people to set aside their indifference and care what happened to Alex?
I was so ashamed, embarrassed and enraged that I didn’t even know where to begin.
Colleges say they care about students, that they care about access to education, but stories like this are not rare. For many students, this IS their story of trying to access education. Not just returning students, ANY student, but especially those whose families and communities have been denied education for generations. Colleges say they don’t understand why enrollment is dropping, but why would people trust an institution that is so indifferent when it matters most?
For those of you interested in starting a reentry program on your campus, use this story (or some story like it) as a case study to help you start having conversations about what is actually happening to students. So many people end up leaving college not because they can’t do the scholarly work, but because they simply can’t deal with the endless systemic attempts to reject them. This signature, that deadline, this thing no one told them about, this other thing no one knew about, all the traps and tricks embedded in the unfamiliar and hostile landscape of higher ed.
This story isn’t particular to Alex because of their incarceration – it could have happened to anyone who had to leave abruptly before the term began and simply didn’t consider they wouldn’t be dropped from the course. Or perhaps they left because of something so overwhelming they didn’t consider the college consequences at all. No one should be punished because life happened and education had to take a lower priority position.
That mindset is cruel and vindictive and unworthy of people who claim to be educators.
Elie Wiesel spoke years ago about indifference, how difficult it is to counter, with either love or hate. It is a given that indifference exists in your college, so don’t be paralyzed when it appears. There will be some things you can work around and others you can’t. Know when a fight might get you somewhere and when it is a waste of time. Things will happen that you cannot justify or explain, they are simply inhumane and cruel. Those are the hardest because you are human, your students are human, and there is never an explanation for apathetical cruelty.
This post doesn’t have a list of recommendations or suggestions because there are simply too many, and they are too unique to every college. Ask the people you work with, especially front line student services staff, what issues come up frequently, and what are some that are more complex - familiarize yourself with what happens to students. Gaining some familiarity with these problems will help you determine where you need to start building the relationships and agreements that will best serve your students and, hopefully, all students.