The last time the Higher Education Act was reauthorized, Beyonce’s “Single Ladies” was the number one song, said Emily Bouck West, deputy executive director of Higher Learning Advocates. 
It’s been 11 years, and “a lot in our world has changed,” she said. “We’re excited policymakers are continuing to talk about Higher Education Act reauthorization, and we think it’s necessary to update policies to better meet today’s students.”
Bouck West is a part of Today’s Students Coalition, a group of higher education advocacy organizations born in August. The coalition consists of twelve different groups, including Higher Learning Advocates, Veterans Education Success, Young Invincibles, the National College Access Network and others. The goal is to advocate for policies that expand supports for nontraditional and underrepresented students.
The coalition recently released a set of policy goals against the backdrop of the impending reauthorization of the Higher Education Act. They also held a panel discussion coinciding with the release called “Stories of Today’s Students” where four student panelists shared their diverse college experiences and their hopes for higher education. On the panel, low-income students, veterans, students of color, career switchers and student parents were represented.
Panel moderator and Young Invincibles Executive Director Rachel Fleischer emphasized that nontraditional students are “the new traditional” with 37 percent of U.S. college students over the age of 25, 64 percent working while in college and 31 percent below the federal poverty line.
“You are the traditional students,” Fleischer told panelists. “This whole idea of a traditional vs. nontraditional student, I think we’ve flipped it on its head … We’ve gotta flip the script, and I think you’re all doing that. And I think that teachers and structures and policies need to catch up.”
The policy goals set by the coalition focus on a few major issues. The first is food insecurity among college students. About 57 percent of potentially eligible low-income students didn’t receive SNAP benefits in 2016, according to a study by the Hope Center for College, Community and Justice. The coalition is proposing to make the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), a federal program which helps low-income families buy food, more accessible to students.
