Food and housing insecurities continue to be a major issue for community college students across the nation, particularly African-American and Southeast Asian students.
Those are the findings of a new report released by the Community College Assessment Lab at San Diego State University. In addition to physical health concerns, mental health concerns are also higher among students who experience housing insecurity and successively higher levels of food insecurity.
According to the report authors, Nexi R. Delgado and Drs. J. Luke Wood and Frank Harris III, depression, severe anxiety, eating disorders and suicidal ideation is linked to these insecurities.
The report, Struggling to survive — striving to succeed: Food and housing insecurities in the community college, is based on 2016 data collected from 90 community colleges and nearly 25,000 students.
Wood, an associate professor and director of the doctoral program in Community College Leadership at San Diego State University, says that the number of community college students who are hungry and homeless is steadily rising.
“It is more extreme than many think,” says Wood, who is also co-director of the Community College Equity Assessment Lab. “The findings are just common sense. If you are more concerned about where your next meal is or where you will lay your head at night than classroom success, it will impact your grades. That’s the collegiate experience for a significant portion of college students, much more than we anticipated.”
The issue, he says, directly impacts students of color, who comprise about 83 percent of those enrolled in community colleges in California and about 65 percent nationwide.
