1 Navigating College Safely and Courageously
2021
Cascadia College COLL101 Team
In pursuing a college education, you have exercised a clear choice about your future. This is a courageous act! Up until college, your education was a “received” education, one that was required and heavily influenced by your parents/guardians, teachers, and other adults. (Rich 1979 eloquently makes the distinction between receiving and claiming an education). You might have made some choices about which high school classes you took and the activities you pursued, but by and large, your education in the U.S. K-12 system was a received one, and it was managed for you. (If you come from outside the U.S. you also likely received a compulsory educational system, even if it looks a little different from the U.S. system.) Once you have made the decision to pursue higher education though, you are in charge of managing this choice– this new education in this new environment–and deciding how you will claim it.
What’s tricky is that some aspects of college are not expressly taught in your classes. In effect, you have joined a new social institution that has its own roles and rules. Many of these roles and rules are subtle or require intentional effort on your part to understand. While you are doing this you are also being challenged by new expectations, ideas, perspectives, and you are effectively in a sea of adults (or near-adults) of different ages with different lived experiences and outlooks. Some of them are also newly navigating the college environment themselves, while others have been around for a while, and still others are employees in that environment, faculty and staff. It can all feel a bit risky, yet to make the most of your college education and to get a sense of belonging, it’s largely up to you to figure out the roles and rules. To that end, this article offers insights to some of the hidden aspects of college, and a few suggestions, to help you claim and navigate this college education of yours, safely and courageously.
As suggested above, colleges are social institutions with their own roles and rules, rather like a bubble. Finding your place in that bubble is on you, as is navigating that bubble so that you are both safe and challenged.
Safe spaces in college
In regards to safety, college students have protections that guarantee certain aspects of their educations and they also have responsibilities to understand these themselves. For example,
Regarding physical spaces:
- You will likely have some classes on a physical campus, or you may prefer to study on campus. It is up to you to recognize safety features and emergency plans, such as those listed in classrooms and hallways. Consider taking a look at posted maps and emergency instructions when you first enter a building or classroom.
- Similarly, your college has equipment and policies related to pandemic control, health emergencies, and other health-related situations. You may be expected to give health attestations in order to access campus, if mandated by law, and you may be asked to abide with health conduct rules. Be sure you understand these.
- It is also in your interest to locate and identify the health emergency resources on campus that are available to all, and those that specifically apply to students.
Regarding personal identity and self-expression:
- Your college provides you with a college identification and email accounts (and possibly other accounts) that are meant to protect your personal information and give you access to college resources. You will want to immediately set up all accounts or adjust all account profiles that you need at your college. (This includes adjusting preferred names and pronouns too.)
- When working in small groups in classes or studying with other students, consider carefully the decision to share personal contact information instead of your college contact information.
- You also should know that by federal law (FERPA), only you can make inquiries about your education with your college’s faculty or staff. Faculty and staff are not allowed to speak to anyone about your education except you. Do not ask parents, siblings, significant others, or roommates to call a professor or staff member on your behalf! (In a very limited number of cases for minors attending college, a student may share the rights to their information.) Similarly, access to your college accounts and any resources you seek with those accounts is only for you, and may not be shared.
Regarding your rights as a student:
- Your identity as a college student is protected under FERPA (as discussed above), while laws like Title IX, ADA, and other federal and state laws protect your rights to learn with or without accommodations and free from harassment and discrimination. Familiarize yourself with these protections, by reviewing them on your college’s public website, and find information about them on most syllabi.
Regarding student conduct and academic integrity:
- You have a Student Code of Conduct that you have agreed to upon admission. It clarifies expectations around regular interactions and academic integrity. Consider reviewing the Student Code of Conduct of your college which can also be found on the public website. Your course syllabi will also clarify your instructors’ and the college’s policies around how to demonstrate your learning appropriately.
Brave spaces in college
The roles and rules of the college environment exist not only to protect you as you learn, but also to push you to exchange new ideas, learn new perspectives and skills, and to engage with difficult information and concepts. To this end, you will not be protected from discomfort or struggle. In fact, learning often comes through productive struggle. To fully claim your education, as the Association of American Colleges and Universities suggests, it is up to you both to be bravely aware, expressive, and questioning, and to welcome the same courage in others around you (2020). For example,
Regarding the kinds of ideas you might learn about:
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Liberal arts education
You have access to what we pride ourselves in the U.S., a liberal arts education. You might be pursuing a specific skills-based degree, major, or certificate that is tied directly to a career field, but all U.S. students take at least a few classes meant to enhance their critical thinking skills, communication skills, integrated learning, understanding of other cultures and ideas. These are believed to distinguish the U.S. higher education system from others, and we have evidence that suggests that this benefits our society and students themselves. (See Association of American Colleges and Universities 2020, Svrluga 2020.) The key point made by the AAC&U is that a liberal education is one in which the student is an ‘active participant’ in their own education and partner in the educations of others.(2020, p. 9) So, embrace ‘required’ courses and learning, even when you are not initially certain how some required classes directly relate to your main field of study.
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Systemic inequalities
You might notice that college, like any social institution and society at large, is not necessarily equally organized. There are privileges and oppressions built into the system that affect everyone in the system. It is in your interest to pay attention to these, to recognize that you may have a different set of privileges than the students next to you, or vice versa. You might even speak up or act when you feel these need to be pointed out or acted upon. (This awareness also relates to recognizing the rights you and your classmates have as college students that were discussed in the Safe spaces section above.)
Regarding the respectful exchange of ideas:
- Some college discussions and conversations may feel very controversial or uncomfortable to you. At all times, you have the responsibility to listen and to share respectfully and courageously, within the guidelines set by your instructor or by your class as a whole. Your ideas and your lived experiences matter, as do those of each of your classmates: learn from each other! You were encouraged to review the Student Code of Conduct at your college above in the Safe spaces section. In addition, as you anticipate challenging discussions in college, you might think in advance of the basic elements of brave sharing spaces in college, offered by Arao and Clements (2013):
- Accept controversy with civility–Different opinions will be expressed and accepted as such.
- Own intentions and impacts—Some conversations might affect the emotional well-being of others which should be acknowledged.
- Challenge by choice–Everyone has the opportunity to step in or out of challenging conversations.
- Respect–Everyone shows respect for others’ basic personhood.
- No attacks–No one inflicts intentional harm on others.
Conclusion
The sections above offer considerations that may help you claim your college education in ways that ensure your safety and bravery and make that college education meaningful, useful, collaborative, and expansive.
References
Arao B. and K. Clements (2013)., cited in Ali, D. (2017 Oct.). Safe Spaces and Brave Spaces: Historical Contexts and Recommendations for Student Affairs Professionals. NASPA Policy and Practice Series, issue 2. NASPA.
Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U). (2020). What a Liberal Education Looks Like: What it is, who it’s for, and where it happens. AAC&U. ISBN 978-0-9961404-9-2 Retrieved from https://portal.criticalimpact.com/user/25043/image/whatlibedlookslike.pdf
Rich, Adrienne. (1979). On lies, secrets, and silence: selected prose 1966-78. New York: W.W. Norton.
Svrluga, S. (2020 Jan. 14). Liberal Arts Education: Waste of money or practical investment? Washington Post. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/liberal-arts-education-waste-of-money-or-practical-investment-studys-conclusions-might-surprise-you/2020/01/13/5a197b14-3649-11ea-bb7b-265f4554af6d_story.html