National Forum doctoral student researchers Angela Vidal-Rodriguez and Aurora Kamimura presented a training session to the Michigan College Advising Corps (MCAC) on November 4, 2011. The title of the presentation was “Higher Education Access for Immigrant & Undocumented Students: Implications for Counselors.”
The presentation draws from recent research conducted by the National Forum which examines issues faced by immigrant and undocumented students who are seeking to pursue higher education. Specifically, the research explores how colleges and universities negotiate laws that constrain undocumented students’ educational access, and how those institutions reconcile the laws with institutional values, governance arrangements, professional norms, and local circumstances.
Research has shown that higher levels of education are tied to numerous public good outcomes, including increased civic participation, greater appreciation for the arts, and increased lifetime earnings. These and other public good benefits form the foundation of the National Forum’s mission and research. In the present day, nearly 1/3rd of the immigrant population in the US is undocumented, which totals approximately 12 million individuals. Approximately 65,000 undocumented students graduate from high school each year. The training session to MCAC provided college advisors with context to allow them to best assist students who may fall into this considerable demographic.
The University of Michigan is proud to have been named the partner institution of the National College Advising Corps to form the Michigan College Advising Corps (MCAC). The goal of the MCAC is to increase the number of low-income, first-generation and underrepresented students entering and completing higher education in the state of Michigan. Following in the tradition of the Peace Corps, AmeriCorps and Teach for America programs, the MCAC recruits and trains a diverse group of recent University of Michigan college graduates to work full-time as college advisers in underserved high schools throughout Michigan for one or two years following graduation. These advisers serve as an important resource for the schools as they assist high school students navigate every aspect of the college-going process. The program strives to increase students’ chances of persistence in postsecondary education by focusing on the best fit and match between the students and their college choices. Additionally, the program works to assist principals, counselors, and teachers to foster a college-going culture at their schools and in their communities.
This training session represents another in an ongoing series of presentations by National Forum researchers regarding access to higher education. In addition, the Forum has numerous research projects underway which examine access issues, especially for undocumented students. Check back regularly to the National Forum website for updates on our important and exciting work!
John and Aurora
Researchers from the National Forum traveled to Frankenmuth, MI, to present research at the Michigan Association for Institutional Research Annual Conference on November 3, 2011. The content of their presentation was the Forum’s recent national study of admissions and financial aid practices affecting immigrant and undocumented students, which was funded by the Texas Guaranteed Student Loan Corporation. The team split their presentation into two parts: (Part 1) Inconsistency and lack of transparency in policies and practices affecting postsecondary access for immigrant and undocumented students: A national research study and its implications; and (Part 2) Roadblocks to transparency: Who is hurt by inconsistency and ambiguity? Forum presenters at the conference included: John Burkhardt, Ph.D.; Angela Vidal-Rodriguez; Joanna Frye; Aurora Kamimura; Kim Reyes; and Omar Hussain.
The Forum attendees enjoyed the opportunity to present our research to institutional researchers, an important group of higher education professionals responsible for collecting and sharing institutional data. Their perspectives on the issue of undocumented students and higher education enhanced the Forum’s understanding of the practical implications of our research study and will be very valuable as we continue to share our findings with other researchers and administrators.
The Forum would like to thank the MI-AIR Steering Committee, who generously awarded a $100 scholarship to each of our graduate student presenters to help defray the conference costs. We are grateful for their financial support and for providing us with an opportunity to share our research.
Angela
Kim and Aurora
Joanna
The National Forum has been concerned to hear recent news about likely loss of college access funding across Michigan. After our years of work in researching and promoting college access, especially in neighborhoods in Detroit, we recognize the significant impact that this sort of funding can have on the college-going behaviors of countless members of our communities. We urge you to consider joining us in working to secure this funding for Michigan College Access Network (MCAN) and the many programs and partners it works with.
The following is from a recent email from MCAN:
1.) Call your Congressional Representative TODAY and ask they send a letter to Secretary Duncan to reconsider the waiver
Sign the delegation letter currently being circulated by Representative Kildee.
Utilize this template letter to send individually. Template CACG Letter from Representative (PDF – Constant Contact only allowed PDF to be uploaded) (View in browser)
2.) Inform your Congressman that the U.S. Department of Education is denying Michigan federal funds because we have been unable to fund higher education in our state at equal levels. This is a violation of state rights. The federal government should not be in the business of dictating how states choose to allocate state resources.
3.) Share news stories relevant to the topic with your friends and coworkers.
If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact MCAN’s office at 517-316-1713 or email staff directly.
Disclaimer: You may have questions about what is allowable advocacy or lobbying. Any organization can provide elected officials with unbiased research information. Also, any nonprofit or public entity can spend a small portion of their time on direct advocacy and lobbying efforts. To learn more about the rules and regulations to how and why your organization should lobby, visit the Michigan Nonprofit Association website at http://mnaonline.org/publicpolicyadvocacy.aspx.
Michigan College Access Network works to dramatically increase Michigan’s college participation and completion rates, particularly among low-income and first-generation college students of all ages. The goal of the organization is to increase the proportion of Michigan residents with college degrees and valuable credentials to 60 percent by the year 2025. www.micollegeaccess.org.
During the fall of 2011, the Alumni Association of the University of Michigan is hosting a seminar series titled Reinventing Public Education. The seminar is part of the Alumni Association’s series: Lifelong Learning: Leaders and Best Seminars.
The National Forum is partnering with the Alumni Association in crafting the seminars, helping frame some of the issues facing modern education.
Details about the seminar series, from the Reinventing Public Education site:
This seminar series is a distinct, yet important shift from the ubiquitous and often controversial debate about education reform and our schools’ problems. These discussions have been consumed with talk of accountability measures, testing, marginalization of the teaching profession, international comparisons, standards, and public investment. While these topics are important, have captured public attention and have dominated headlines for nearly a decade, perhaps we should make a more fundamental challenge, concern for all us as parents, grandparents, citizens and as alumni of a great public institution:
What kind of public education system will address the challenges of the 21st century
Public education, from childhood through the university, is considered an important gateway to opportunity in the U.S., as well as a means of building a social structure and preparing individuals for roles in democratic practice. Yet the odds of completing high school for youth attending the nation’s most troubled schools is only about 50/50; and postsecondary opportunities are increasingly favoring the affluent. Research indicates our nation’s high school graduation rate is around 70%, yet only 30% percent of students graduate with the minimum requirements needed to apply to four-year colleges. The U.S. postsecondary attainment rate is currently around 38%.
The panelists will help us make sense of these statistics, focusing on K-12 Education, Higher Education, and the ideal of educating for the good of society. We hope to foster a thoughtful consideration about the future of public education with the full awareness the world is changing in unpredictable ways, the challenges of public responsibility are becoming more complex, more demanding of citizens who can understand our own society in the context of others, and more driven by scientific and technological factors. Suddenly international security requires an understanding of religious differences and ethnic histories. The boundary between art, media and technology has fallen.
Join us as we study, discuss, try to understand, and determine how we might respond to the evolution of our education system during this period of change and challenge and see what we might contribute to the vision of reinvention. Our conversations will ask: What is at stake? Who are the stakeholders? What is the value, the purpose and the future of education for the individual and society?
Join us in person on campus, from your home via live-stream, or live video stream via mobile device.
Alumni Center
200 Fletcher St.
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Directions and Parking Information
Thursday, October 20, 7 p.m. Click here to register!
Thursday, November 17, 7 p.m. Click here to register!
Thursday, December 8, 7 p.m. Click here to register!
Click here to register for all three events!
Leaders and Best seminars are free for Alumni Association members and current U-M students.
Not a member of the Alumni Association? Click here to join.
By Kelly Field
Boston
Public colleges are more likely than private colleges to admit undocumented students as a matter of policy, but they are less likely to offer such students financial aid, according to a new survey.
The survey by the National Forum on Higher Education for the Public Good, at the University of Michigan, was sent to members of the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators in February. It found that 36 percent of public colleges and 21 percent of private colleges had policies that allow undocumented students to enroll, while 29 percent of public colleges and 57 percent of private colleges provide them with institutional aid. The initial survey findings were released Sunday at Nasfaa’s annual conference here in Boston. The final report will be released in late August.
click here to view full report (PDF 40pg)
Washington, D.C. (10/27/2010) – Every year, our nation’s grantmakers give billions of dollars in grants for education. Yet, only a small fraction of these foundations provides funding to address the specific needs of lower-income and other vulnerable students. An even smaller number supports efforts to solve the education equity crisis, according to a new report by the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, a watchdog group based in D.C.
In “Confronting Systemic Inequity in Education: High Impact Strategies for Philanthropy,” Kevin Welner and Amy Farley examine the cycle of unequal educational access and opportunities faced by students from marginalized communities. They argue that education reform cannot take place without breaking this cycle, and this requires changes in the way philanthropy deploys its resources.
“Education in America is broken especially for children in vulnerable communities, and the situation is actually worsening, but that’s not the news,” says Welner, a professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder and director of the National Education Policy Center. “What’s newsworthy is the fact that the country’s education grantmakers are not effectively using their limited dollars to drive long-term solutions. By revisiting some basic assumptions, they can be more effective.”
Welner and Farley recommend two high impact strategies for foundations: dedicate at least 50 percent of their education grantmaking towards supporting marginalized communities and 25 percent towards bringing those communities into the policymaking process through advocacy, community organizing and civic engagement.
Olga Zanella, seated at right, with her mother, Oliva, her brother Victor and an immigration activist, Ralph Isenberg, back right. Mr. Isenberg pressed Olga Zanella's case with the authorities.
Olga Zanella, a Mexican-born college student in Texas, should have started months ago trying to figure out how she could make a life in Mexico, since American immigration authorities were working resolutely to deport her there.
But Ms. Zanella, 20, could not bring herself to make plans. She was paralyzed by fear of a violent country she could not remember, where she had no close family.
Ms. Zanella, who has been living illegally in the United States since her parents brought her here when she was 5, had been trying to fight her deportation for more than two years. She was pulled over by the local police in February 2009 as she was driving in her hometown, Irving, Tex., and did not have a driver’s license. The police handed her over to immigration agents.
April 28, 2010
WASHINGTON — The timing couldn’t have been much better for a group of scholars and administrators advocating for a pipeline to legal status for undocumented college students to meet here.
Less than a week ago, Arizona’s governor signed into law a controversial measure taking aim at illegal immigrants, drawing ire from President Obama and some members of Congress. This week, news reports have suggested that Congressional Democrats are pushing ahead to take up immigration reform legislation, which would most likely include measures aimed at putting students who spend at least two years in college on a path to permanent residency.
©2011 The National Forum on Higher Education for the Public Good
Center for the Study of Higher and Postsecondary Education
