The Cost of Involvement

Is It Too High?

The Cost of Involvement: Is It Too High?

Introduction

College campuses often emphasize the importance of being highly involved throughout your college years for personal and professional advancement. The truth is being highly involved on campus is much more achievable for the traditional, middle-class white students than Latine students. The unseen high cost for Latine students to live up to an idealized highly involved star student means they must sacrifice their strong family ties and responsibilities. Yet, these strong family ties and responsibilities are intricately linked to their Latine culture and identity.

Perez (2017) explains this central aspect of the Latine culture: familism. "Familism is reflected in Latino children’s sense of responsibility, solidarity, and loyalty to immediate and extended family members'' (Suarez-Orozco & Suarez-Orozco, 1995, as cited in Perez, 2017). Honoring familism while attending college leaves little to no room for students to take part in any additional extra activities, even activities that will help them academically. “Students may be offered additional tutoring, for example, but face difficulties going to faculty office hours or taking classes during the day because they have to work one or more jobs and/or take care of their children” (Smith & Lucena, 2016, p.5). The difficulties experienced by low income, first generation (LIFG) students in Smith and Lucena’s study (2016) is also true for Latine students who too often hold this additional identity.

These two intersecting identities, being Latine and a college student, inevitably clash and leave them left with a difficult choice to be made: to be highly involved and the idealized star student or to be a responsible child of their Latine family. Unfortunately, this difficult experience is seen within our Latine students on campus at Boise State. The challenging balance of family vs. higher education is a dominant theme in the literature on student persistence and was my exact situation entering my undergraduate program.

Looking Back

When I began my freshman year of college, I was a commuter student and I quickly realized I did not have the same opportunities to be as involved on campus as many of my white peers did. I was living 30 minutes away from campus and a first-generation student who was still trying to navigate all the different ropes of college. My sense of belonging suffered from this. I made the decision to move on-campus into the dorms during my second semester, in hopes this would enhance my college experience. I remember hearing the “Get Involved, Get Involved” message on campus and seeing it throughout campus on posters and within university emails received. I was also able to feel the difference between my commuter college experience and that of my residential classmates; it was clear to see. I would travel to campus only for the sole purpose of attending classes then, rush out to drive to my shifts at work. All while my peers who lived on campus were attending Greek life events and grabbing lunch with their roommates at the Student Union Building.

It wasn’t until I ran into an old high school friend, who also identifies as Latine and was living on-campus, that I considered moving to on-campus living. When I did make the move from living with my parents to living in college dorms, it drastically changed my relationship with my family. My parents wanted me to continue living with them and caring for my younger siblings, as I was the oldest child of the household. My parents also advised me that moving out meant I would be responsible for my own finances since I chose to walk away from the family duties. Ironically, I had to search for a second job to be able to afford the on-campus housing fees, which still hindered my ability to be as involved as others, although the closer proximity to classes and campus activities did slightly increase my sense of belonging. In my head, this was the necessary initial step to becoming the star student I was told to be. By the end of my undergraduate program, I eventually reached my personal desired level of involvement on campus as I had finally found my true sense of belonging. Yet, I look back now at the long process and the costs associated with it and I know I must not be alone. To add to this, today my parents still resent me for the decision to leave for on-campus living my freshman year.

Today I am in graduate school working with a research team of undergraduate students and faculty. In addition to me, our research team includes multiple individuals who share this intense pressure of balancing two intersecting identities. Additionally, we interviewed 14 students who also shared stories that demonstrated this struggle to reconcile the internal identity conflict. Together, these first-person narratives reveal how widespread the tensions is among our first-generation Latine students. We share these stories here to elevate their visibility in hopes that Boise State leaders continue to strive toward a more inclusive message about what it takes to succeed in college.

Familism

To better understand the tough decision for these students, it’s helpful to gain some insight into the culture of the Latine students seeking their college degree. Strong family ties impacts students' presence and success in college (both positively and negatively). These students bring familial capital to college. That capital is, “a shared sense of responsibility and commitment to serving others; and [...] maintaining strong ties with immediate and extended family members" (Perez, 2017). Family is very important to our Latine students emotionally, and it is also a source of knowledge. Findings have demonstrated that students of color draw upon familial knowledge as a source of strength and resilience (Vaccaro et al., 2019). Yet, college messages about "moving in" and "getting involved" suggest that students should leave family behind (Guiffrida, 2006). These mixed messages can be extremely difficult when students are also navigating the ropes of college at the same time. Maintaining family ties may mean sacrificing expected engagement in academic and social life on campus. When forced to choose, familism suggests the students will leave college before neglecting family obligations.

“I didn’t think it would be fair to my parents if I moved away”

We see familism reflected in our interviews with Latine students and their decision about which college they wished to attend. A common theme in our interviews was the need to stay close to family. In fact, seven of thirteen students we interviewed explained the reason they chose Boise State as their college choice was so they would remain close to their family. Six of those students were Latine students, who all felt family was still a big enough obligation that they wanted to pursue higher education while remaining close enough to their family.

One Latine student, Carlos, explained his reasoning for choosing Boise State:

"We left my entire family over there (in Mexico). We only have each other, that's it. All of them are in Mexico, so I didn’t think it would be fair to my parents if I moved away even more. We came here together and I suddenly leave to another state, I’ll just stay local; and [...] [My mom] was against me moving out. That mom and son bond. That’s pretty common in Latine families."

When we listen to that Carlos' story, there really was no choice for him than to stay close to his family. The drastic move to pursue education elsewhere would have caused a strain on his parents. More specifically, we hear about his strong relationship to his mom. Not only did the general family ties play a factor in his college decision, but his bond with his mom and her desire to keep him close. In reality, this meant if he was going to pursue a college degree, he had to do it where he could continue living with his family in the same household.

Another student, Valentina, also expressed the same pressure, but was able to get at least two hours away from her family because of a scholarship. “Yeah they definitely didn’t want me to (move away), it is two hours away though, but they’re very supportive.”

“How do I manage it so it doesn’t consume me?”

In contrast to the majority culture students, Latine students’ family responsibilities continue throughout their college years. Our data suggests that this could also be due to these students being first-generation. Within the Latine culture, it is a common parental expectation for children to uphold certain ideals. More specifically, if you are the oldest child in the family, you must care for your younger siblings and contribute to the household.

For those students, they may change courses or majors in order to satisfy family demands or put in more hours at work to help their family. The perception that a degree or discipline is not "family friendly" is a factor that can undermine students' commitment to a STEM major (Litzler & Young, 2012). In our study, for example, Carlos shared the expectation of helping in his household. “Especially in our culture of Latinos, since I’m the oldest, there’s a lot of responsibility on my back. So a lot of times if dad isn't home, you’re the one in charge or the eldest one is in charge.” Similarly, another student, Isaac told us “I come from a very traditional Latine household where the ideals that were instilled into me were, 'you are the eldest, you are a man, you need to provide and so forth'.”

While some may change majors, familism also creates pressure for Latine students to stay in college. For example, Isaac gave us insight to his own struggle of trying to deal with the pressure of work, school, and additionally his home responsibilities:

"I had the experience of growing up as an individual and having the opportunity to care for siblings from a very young age. Everyone looks up to me as the gold standard. You should be like him. That’s always going to weigh on me. It’s always going to weigh on my back. For the longest time, it was like how do I manage it so it doesn’t consume me?"

His expression of being, "the gold standard" conveys the pressure he feels to earn a degree and set the example for his siblings who are watching and will follow in his footsteps.

Valentina shared a similar pressure, explaining the stress that comes with being the role model and example for your siblings within a Latine family, “It is a bit stressful. I’m also trying to help them with their homework and they look up to me. So if I do something wrong, they’re going to know.” In all, for Latine students the pressure of needing to set an example and care for their siblings can really take a toll on them, regardless which decision they make.

“That’s part of learning the ropes.”

The current experiences of these Latine students is that they truly are incredibly busy with family duties and almost unable to be as involved as other traditional students. We heard from students exactly how difficult being involved on campus was for them as a Latine student. “I used to have more involvement, but I cut some of them out because I didn’t have much time. As much as I wanted to [be involved], it’s stressful”, said Valentina. Another student, Miguel, on the other hand explained how he too had to make some sacrifices in his life to make time for extra activities and his academics,

“The issue with that, a lot of people don’t have the time to attend those [events ...] I feel like you have to have that financial support to be more able to. [...] That’s part of learning the ropes, managing your time better at the university and making sacrifices when needed.”

While being involved or networking is a choice for any student, for Latine students who know it is important, their sense is that they must "sacrifice" time that is normally devoted to family or school or work to attend events or to be involved in organizations. The personal costs for this student, and other first generation Latine students makes the price of living up to the "ideal" student very clear.

What's worked to ease the burden?

Affinity Groups

We heard from our Latine students that affinity clubs and organizations on campus help them balance their two intersecting identities. Parents are more likely to approve of students spending time in affinity clubs or organizations because they align with the students’ identities and family values. Of the eight total Latine students that we interviewed, all were involved within at least one club that aligned with their cultural identity. For example, Lucia, a participant told us, “I knew that it would be a lot easier for me to go through college and make the best experience out of it, if I met people who looked like me or had similar goals.” Although, unfortunately we also heard from students that they experienced difficulty in discovering these clubs. When we asked how they connected with affinity groups, the students told us they heard from friends or they just discovered the organization. For example, Jaqueline, a student who was involved in the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE), learned about it from a friend’s sister rather than the institution itself. She thought it strange that no one officially told her about the organization. Since the university has a vested interest in making these connections easier for our Latine students, it seems the university should make a greater effort to help students make those connections.

Funds of Knowledge Framework

There are practices that universities can embrace to reduce the stress that students experience when they are caught between these two worlds. The funds of knowledge (FoK) framework (Smith & Lucena, 2016) offers perspectives that are demonstrated to support low income first-generation (LIFG), including many Latine and students of color. The framework encourages a shift from deficit thinking to one in which you “identify alternate sources of knowledge from the students’ backgrounds that could be positive resources for learning when aligned with reforms in the classroom” (Smith & Lucena, 2016, p.5) For example, when faculty actively work with students "to identify which elements of their backgrounds are relevant to engineering" students were more likely to see these identity factors as resources that they could draw upon (p.5). Further, faculty and staff development integrating the FoK encourages university personnel to acknowledge, validate, and support students rather than seeing family time as taking away from practices that will support student success. The frame work can help Latine students so that they can be both a college student and Latine family member. Smith and Lucena (2016) concluded their study by recommending educators “must go beyond asking those students to adapt to a curriculum and institution built to uphold middle-class norms and actually transform those structures to be more welcoming” (p.23).

Conclusion

In conclusion, Boise State has an opportunity as an up and coming Hispanic serving institution to not only enroll more Latine students, but to really serve them. Failing to recognize the crucial role these students have within their families will continue to hinder the success of Latine undergraduates. Knowing this information and getting a better understanding of our Latine students’ experiences, we must wonder how we can ask these students, who already have so much on their plate, to find the time and mentality to add more to their college experience such as extra activities? The truth is we can’t. Although, here is what we CAN do as an institution. Boise State can begin their support of Latine students by adopting these impactful practices:

Early campus introductions of affinity groups that actually align with identities and cultural values (SHPE, CAMP, First Forward, OELA, etc.)
Adopt a Funds of Knowledge Framework and integrate it into faculty and staff development
Hold campus events that include different cultural foods, cultural music, and content different languages
Be proactive and offer students helpful information for support and resources including contacts for affinity groups based in students' demographic information.

We can hardly wait to see Boise State adopt these practices.

Recommended citation:

Olmedo, J. & Stieha, V. (2021, May 15). The cost of involvement: Is it too high?. https://sites.google.com/boisestate.edu/jazlynolmedo-research2020/the-cost-of-involvement

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