Higher Education & Education Policy

How Higher Education Can Support First-Gen Students

Dean David Chard and Anthony Abraham Jack discuss the unique challenges faced by first-generation and low-income students

Although first-generation and low-income students have the academic skills to handle the coursework at elite colleges and universities, their backgrounds may not prepare them for the hidden curriculum embedded in higher education. Their more well-off counterparts have learned how to advocate for themselves early on, thanks to the lessons they learned from the adults around them, so they make the most of office hours, request leaves of absence when things get difficult at home, receive letters of recommendation from well-placed family friends, and more.

In response to these inequities, college and university administrators, as well as researchers, K–12 educators, and parents, are investigating ways to make colleges more welcoming for students of all socioeconomic backgrounds. This was the topic explored by BU Wheelock Dean David Chard and Anthony Abraham Jack during the second Conversations with the Dean webinar, “College is for Everybody: Creating Welcoming Campuses.” Jack, an associate professor at BU Wheelock and the faculty director of BU’s Newbury Center, which supports first-generation college students, discussed the inequities that these students face.

Highlights from the Conversation

Low-income students miss out on critical skills

A lot of low-income students don’t get practice advocating for themselves, because so many times, we are told to be quiet, we have to do our work, we have to be barely seen, but definitely not heard.

Anthony Abraham Jack

Not all progress is equal

If you stumble or struggle or trip, they tell you that you’re on your own. That’s progress that’s not equal. It’s nowhere near equitable, and it’s nowhere near fair.

Anthony Abraham Jack

Colleges don’t get what students are dealing with 

[U]niversities . . . say, “Go home, write an essay, describe a hardship, ask someone to write a letter of recommendation.” If you come from a neighborhood with a 50% unemployment town, a mining town, a reservation—you’re going back to a place where even your parents, your family, can’t find work, and yet you want the boss to submit a letter of recommendation?

Anthony Abraham Jack

Higher education must break the cycle of inequity

If universities continue to privilege privilege, we will still truly hurt the disadvantaged. Period.

Anthony Abraham Jack

Conversations with the Dean are a series of webinars hosted by Dean Chard that explore some of the most pressing topics in education. Learn more about Conversations with the Dean.