Let's Help Students Roar

How does poverty affect our students and keep them from being retained?

The 2018-2020 FACET Leadership Team was tasked with assessing existing initiatives and research studies, underway or already completed, with existing reports and power points of quantitative and qualitative data on the impact of underserved student status on academic retention and graduation. The team developed a video assisting faculty in targeting the ramifications of the context of poverty on inequality among students and the effects of poverty-related issues on retention. The team aims to reduce the barriers that inhibit faculty from better linking students to existing resources, including: (a) lack of awareness, (b) information overload, (c) checking themselves out of the applicability of relevant information (e.g. overlooking emails), and (d) needing to better understand the “meaning framework” -why and how it is useful.

How can you help?

As Jay Gladden (Associate Vice Chancellor for Undergraduate Education) explains at the end of the video, you can do the following to help your students:
  1. Have a conversation with your students about these websites. Assisting Under-Resourced Students (https://assist.iupui.edu/) and Help Me R.O.A.R. (https://helpmeroar.iupui.edu/)
  2. Include a statement on your syllabus that shows you understand students have financial challenges.
  3. If you have a personal narrative, feel free to share it on the first day of class.
  4. You may also want to examine the textbook you are using for your class. In focus groups, IUPUI students said their biggest frustration was paying for a textbook that the professor did not use very often. Ask these questions:
    1. Is an e-text available for that book?
    2. Do you need the latest edition?
    3. Are there open access resources available (as a substitute)?

Josette F. Jones

Patricia S. Herzog

Kathryn L. Berlin