May 19th marked the end of my first academic year at Minnesota State College Southeast. It was a humbling year in many ways, as I hadn't changed jobs in a long time, and I had spent the prior 17 years in a different state system. It meant I came to MSC Southeast passionate about what I believe in (ending poverty), knowledgeable about education and about people, but completely ignorant on how things worked at my new college and new system. Oh, and then COVID-19 caused The Great Evacuation, and I continue to work through that daily as well. See what I mean by humbling? It was very challenging to feel like a novice again in many ways after growing comfortable enough in my old life to feel like I knew how things worked and maybe even how things really worked. But it's been worth it. When I made my pitch to get this job, I said I was looking for a place where we could rally around a common mission and do amazing things. That common cause was a commitment to social mobility through poverty-informed practice and infrastructure. After nine months, I would like to share what we are trying to do here.
Our strategic plan contains the goal of building a poverty-informed infrastructure. We have begun that work with food pantries on both campuses and free transportation in the cities we serve. Both things are wonderful but there is a long way to go. Our pantries are built on a no-barrier model which warms my heart, but they don't include refrigeration, and are stocked by volunteer efforts of students and staff. We will continue to build this out, and we will look for local partners to enhance and coordinate our efforts. We are also pursuing funding to have a coordinator for basic needs on campus. Part of what we are doing here is acknowledging students are humans first (credit to Dr. Sara Goldrick-Rab) and working to create the conditions where learning is possible. Learning while you are hungry or unsure where you will sleep is a tall order. Being poverty-informed is the reason we made the decision to maintain student access to campus this spring even after we moved to distance learning. We knew the pantry was indispensable for many of our students, and we knew technology access was not a given as we moved more online. So, we left a skeleton crew on campus, used every spacing and cleaning protocol we could, and stayed open to students for support if not for classes. I realize this might be controversial, but not everyone is safer at home, and not everyone can delay their dream. We did what we had to, because parking lot WiFi for people without devices was not a solution we could live with.
My partner in student services and I created a two page "manifesto" of sorts, and it refers to "celebrating and doubling down" on serving our under-served populations. To me, this is a step beyond regular equity and inclusion work. It is the act of making sure students who have felt left out, not only feel welcome on our campus, but feel seen and wanted. Being wanted is so much different than being welcome. Think of it this way. There was a time when we talked about "tolerance" as if that was the gold standard of inclusion. On closer examination it doesn't seem nearly adequate to "tolerate" differences. I think we are evolving toward a similar shift from saying students are all "welcome" to creating a culture of being actively "wanted." We've paired this mindset of celebrating the students we serve with a commitment to removing the barriers which prevent them from succeeding. It also means actively recruiting students from under-served groups. Our recruitment team is already making us the partner of choice for Alternative Learning Centers. What better group of students to hear our message of not just welcome but wanted? We will remain welcoming to all, but we will make sure those who have been left out are actively wanted. Imagine the transformation of a campus that eats, sleeps, and breathes this mission. This work will force us to be serious about identifying and eliminating barriers, and it will definitely mean we will have to pursue resources to build the supports people need. It is exciting just to type, can you imagine how great it is going to be?
We imagine honoring the poverty-informed ideal of acceleration by being a partner to industry in our region in new and exciting ways. We will seek partners who also want to make students feel wanted. Internships, Credit for Prior Learning, and Work-Based Learning will be strategies we use to move people to stability and success faster. We will also establish a culture of pedagogical innovation based on understanding the students we serve and are trying to serve. In a deep culture of caring, we will leave no stone unturned in finding ways to help students succeed. Does a flipped classroom support the students we want, or maybe competency-based learning or any other number of ideas? We will fearlessly explore, evaluate, and evolve so we too can accelerate to success. We want to build something different. We want to have goals other than just remaining open and available. I've heard so many times our communities value us, but they don't really know what we do. I think we can define purpose and create identity while changing the world for the people we serve, their families, and the communities we live in.
So, what are we doing here? I suppose people could call it many things, but to me; it is building a truly poverty-informed campus based on the three principles of poverty-informed practice. First, we recognize basic needs impact persistence and graduation, and we work relentlessly to meet those needs or partner with those who can help us do so. We will refuse to lose someone because of their resource limitations. The second principle is about creating a sense of belonging on campus. This is working on what our facilities "say", how our staff interact, and making sure our students can see people like them represented on campus. This means we must make our staff more representative of the students we are reaching out to. It also means we need to look at our facilities, the artwork, the pictures, and the signs. We want to create a place that screams "you belong here." And lastly, we recognize time can be the enemy for the students we serve. This why talk of "gap years" in this pandemic sits uneasy in my mind. The longer we ask you to defer a dream, the higher the odds of life intervening and derailing the dream. So, we are committed to honoring what people have done and know when they arrive, and moving them quickly to a place of stability, success, and next steps. That is what we are doing here...
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