BUZZ
In exchange for free food and transit passes, students need to take classes
It is “cruel” to ask students to have an education plan and think about finding jobs in order to access free food, bus passes, laptops, and housing, a “basic needs expert” says.
Beginning in fall 2027, second year students at Compton College will be asked to meet certain criteria to access perks, including food pantry access and free meals. Students already pay only $700 per semester in tuition, not counting any financial aid.
The changes are relatively simple – all students must create an account with job search website Handshake, verify their address, “have an education plan on file by the end of their first academic year,” and not owe the school any money.
In exchange, students will have access to “farmers’ market vouchers ($20 per week), free meals available at the Everytable cafeteria, housing services, and transportation support,” an explainer sheet states. Students can also access “technology/equipment loans (Wi-Fi hotspots, laptops, calculators, and headphones).”
Requirements vary for degree or transfer students compared to certificate students, but they all boil down to taking a certain number of classes and staying on pace to graduate.
President Keith Curry said the plan is in place to help improve low transfer and graduation rates and to help spend taxpayer funding wisely. “It’s about institutional transformation,” Curry said, according to Inside Higher Ed. “We’re setting expectations for our students because … that’s how important it is that we want to see our students complete.”
Some students hang around the community college for “five to six or seven years,” Curry said. He wants to see them pushed to succeed.
But the changes have basic needs experts concerned, according to comments provided to Inside Higher Ed.
“Everything I know about both public benefits and college benefits is that the more requirements you add, the more you lose people, and often the people you lose are the neediest people,” City University of New York Professor Nicholas Freudenberg said.
He said the changes are “at best pointless and at worst cruel.”
Concerns were shared by Mark Huelsman, director of policy and advocacy for Temple University’s basic needs center.
“Where we want to be extremely careful with these kinds of things is making sure that students aren’t faced with undue red tape or administrative burdens or other hurdles just to be able to eat at the end of the day,” Huelsman told Inside Higher Ed. However, he said the idea could be a “great concept,” depending on its implementation.
Meacie Fairfax with Complete College America said Compton College is right to experiment.
“Compton College does deserve real credit for trying to link basic needs to completion outcomes rather than just treating them as separate efforts,” she said. “We want to make sure that [students] get to those milestones.”
