Using the Psycho-Sociocultural Framework to Create a Campus Climate That Acknowledges and Supports the Role of Basic Needs in Student Success

Introduction

Across Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) and Minority-Serving Institutions (MSIs), efforts to increase student retention and degree completion are being implemented, especially among first-generation and low-income students. Yet two related factors—the lack of awareness related to students’ resilience and efforts to fulfill their basic needs, and the subsequent lack of support in helping students leverage their strengths and navigate points of services on campus—undercut institutional efforts to increase student retention and graduation rates. Administrators, faculty, and staff need to work together to transform the institutional structures to improve the experiences and outcomes of all students. They must become proactive rather than reactive, and they must anticipate and build supportive informational and physical infrastructure to anticipate and address basic needs insecurities on campus (Garcia, 2019).

At California State University, Northridge (CSUN), a large, urban HSI in Los Angeles, California, Basic Needs programs and services continue to be refined, expanded, and tailored to meet the comprehensive needs of our students. Although outreach activities are reaching a larger number of students, accessing the resources and services can be complex and overwhelming for first-generation and low-income students who are developing comfort within the culture of higher education (Chang et al., 2020). Thus, the goal of this chapter is to model how to create a campus climate that actively acknowledges the role of basic needs in student success. We argue that to create this campus climate, universities must create the infrastructure to support and sustain collaborative efforts across student, faculty, staff, and administrator groups in efforts to address basic needs on campus.

After reading this chapter, readers will comprehend the following:

• 1.

  Understand the higher education needs that are unique to post-traditional and historically underserved students enrolled in an HSI;

• 2.

  Learn how the psychosociocultural framework can be applied to higher education to create a culture of care, specifically in HSIs; and

• 3.

  Appreciate the importance of engaging faculty, staff, and students in developing and implementing a campus climate and culture of care that is responsive to today’s student success.

Background

Over the past several decades in the United States, HSIs have been on the rise. The U.S. Department of Education defines HSIs as institutions of higher education that are eligible to apply for a Title V program and have enrollment of undergraduate full-time equivalent students that is at least 25 percent Hispanic students (U.S. Department of Education, n.d.). Although federal agencies in the United States use the term Hispanic to describe and classify people of Spanish origin or Latin American descent, it is important to note that Latino/a and Hispanic/Latino/a/x ethnonyms are also used to be inclusive of non-Spanish speaking people of Latin American descent and nonbinary people (Garcia, 2020). The rise in HSIs is a response to the increase in enrollment among Hispanic/Latino/a/x undergraduate students. Between 1994-95 and 2018-19, the net increase in enrollment of Hispanic/Latino/a/x undergraduates at HSIs was approximately 1.6 million, which translates into an astonishing 329% increase (Excelencia in Education, 2020). While HSIs enroll 67% of Hispanic/Latino/a/x undergraduates, and, as a whole, Hispanic/Latino/a/x have seen the largest degree attainment increase from 2005-09 to 2015-19, Hispanic/Latino/a/x continue to have the lowest level of bachelor’s degree attainment (U.S. Census Bureau, 2022; McElrath & Martin, 2021; Excelencia in Education, n.d). In the pursuit of educational equity, there remain concerns related to how HSIs are intentional in serving Hispanic/Latino/a/x students and closing achievement gaps experienced by Hispanic/Latino/a/x students.