We’re a cynical lot. Students, that is. We take issue with as many people and things as we can—professors who don’t care anymore, close-minded classmates, the injustice of student loans and the politics of being a student in the first place. And that’s just on Monday morning. Then again, nothing good happens on Monday mornings.
I’m sure we all have some protest-worthy issues to bring up with the Portland State administration, and we may not always feel like we get heard. So when we do, it’s worth mentioning.
At the end of last year, there was an article in The Oregonian announcing that PSU had doubled the budget for the Resource Center for Students with Children.
Let me pause for a moment and say that full-time school and work without children is challenging enough, thus I bow to the 22 percent of PSU students who are balancing the responsibilities of being parents along with midterms and finals, a feat I’m not sure I could manage.
When I saw that the school had upped the center’s budget from $105,000 to $229,000, I realized that every now and then someone high up in the administrative clouds does in fact hear us—someone does see the importance of supporting a major part of our student body.
PSU student and parent Cassia Gammill, a member of a panel of students assembled to advocate for an expansion of the center, said, “It provides a welcoming place, a community for those who can easily feel isolated.” She described how, a few years back, she’d walk around the school carrying her baby in between her classes, because she didn’t know where else to go.
Thankfully, that’s not the case today. As a result of the added finances, there is now a spacious student lounge on the fourth floor of the Smith Memorial Student Union, complete with a play area where children can color and frolic to their hearts’ content and a computer station where parents can catch up on homework.
It’s also a perfect place for parents to meet and get to know one other, connecting over their shared experience at PSU. The center also boasts a clothing bank and library of books for children, offers individual consultations and support groups for families, and provides a loan program and other resources linking low-income students to subsidized child care facilities.
Gammill highlights the Kid’s Night Out program, where students can leave their children for a night of supervised fun and go and enjoy a few hours of child-free time. She said this was how she got to know other parents on campus. Students qualify for this free event by completing activities such as joining a campus organization, attending a cultural event, achieving a 3.0 GPA or meeting with an academic advisor.
Though the center still wants to explore even more ways to support student parents—Coordinator Lisa Wittorf says she hopes that “this is just the beginning”—the fact that there has been such a positive response to a felt need in our student community is encouraging.
It has to be said that PSU has shown an incredible focus on the nontraditional members of its student body, and it makes all the sense in the world: 60 percent of us are 25 or older. Instead of taking this statistic for granted and assuming life at 18 is the same as at 30, the administration has been intentional about supporting its variety of students from start to finish.
Another example of this is the Last Mile program, which seeks out students who quit the university only a few credits shy of graduation and helps them restart and finish their education. It’s initiatives like this and the resource center that persuade me to believe that sometimes students aren’t just numbers milling around the campus.
Our situations do matter. Yes, there will always be a financial calculation in it. There has to be. That’s how our world works. And there will undoubtedly be countless other issues about which to voice our discontent. Yet there is something very assuring about an administration, warts and all, that supports students who, after all, are raising the next generation. We should all be invested in their success. It matters.