Exploring Taxonomies on Higher Education Campus: Supporting Parent-Students

Milagros Zingoni (Arizona State University)

Today one of the most significant challenges in higher education is meeting the diverse needs of the growing population of nontraditional students (Medved & Heisle, 2002), among them, 4.8 million independent higher education students raising children, while pursuing a degree (Gault et al., 2014). A study by the Institute for Women's Policy Research, reveals the rapid growth of the student parent population in higher education, doubling its number between the year 1995 and 2011 (Gault et al., 2014). Students raising children make up a considerable portion of the postsecondary education population, as more than 1 in 4 students in the United States are parents (Schumacher, 2013). Despite this fundamental shift in demographics, higher education institutions have yet to address the infrastructure and programmatic needs of student parents. Nor there is awareness of their struggles and the lack of physical and programmatic support.

Raising a child or children while working full or part time and succeeding as a student introduces additional stress to an already overwhelming process (Springer, Parker & Leviten-Reid, 2009). The study inquires on the infrastructure and programmatic needs of the growing population of graduate and undergraduate student parents. The study was approved by the Institutional Review Board (IRB) with exempt status. Surveys and interviews were collected for twelve months in 2017. The results were analyzed by clustering characteristics and concepts with similar connotation (O'Leary, 2005). The findings identify and define a new set of design guidelines for taxonomies of infrastructure and programming within higher education campuses that can enable parent- students to succeed in both academics and parenting.