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I set out to survey colleges across
the country to find out which ones were good for students with
children. The results were dismal.
Many colleges, for example, stipulate
that all students must live on camp us, but there is no housing for a woman who
has children. When I called these colleges, most said they had
never had a single mom or parenting student but if they did they
would allow the parent to live off campus.
But off-campus housing can be impossible to find, as in the case
of Rebecca Trotsky-Sirr, a student at Stanford, who could find
nothing in the expensive Silicone Valley area. She banded together
with other single moms and faced down the Stanford Administration,
which finally capitulated and allowed extra aid for the moms
to pay for housing, "It's about redefining who can attend
ivy-league universities," she said.
Indeed. Most single moms face herculean obstacles when trying
to secure an equal opportunity to education. Teen moms, for example,
are often, even today, coerced into leaving high school. Interns
at New York Civil Liberties Union posed as teen moms and called
29 high schools in New York City. Only six said they could enroll
without any reservations. The others tried to divert the teens
to other schools or suggested a GED(high school equivalency tests).
Some high schools do have day care, but not in the numbers needed.
In New York City there are 12,000 new teen moms every year and
only 1,000 slots in the day care programs. What happens to the
other 11,000?
Check out: Financial aid information:
fafsa.ed.gov
On college campuses, just the lack of structures for families
makes the parenting students feel that colleges are not accessible.
Most of the family housing that does exist was built after WWII
to house veterans and few colleges have added more, even though
now international, graduate student and undergraduate student
families compete for space. Most colleges have changed "Married
Student Housing" into "Family Housing," but many
still call it "Graduate Housing," thereby sending the
message to undergraduate families that they are not eligible.
When I called Harvard graduate housing, for example, I was told
that undergraduates cannot room in graduate student housing.
When I asked what would an undergraduate parenting student do,
I was told to contact undergraduate housing, which told me no
children would be allowed in undergraduate housing. I was referred
back to Graduate Housing. Finally I spoke to someone who said
that they had had a single mom years ago and that they would
find out what they did and get back to me. I was never able to
find an answer.
 The
bright side on day care is "Child Care Access Means Parents
in Schools Program," begun in 2001 which has appropriated
15 million for schools which have awarded over $350,000 in Pell
Grant funds. The grants allow the schools to offer low cost or
no cost day care to Pell Grant recipients. Therefore many of
the large state universities have been able to expand day care
facilities.
Title IX, the federal law which is know for the legal battles
over equal access to sports facilities on college campuses has
never been applied to housing for parenting students. Title IX
, section 1681 states, "No person in the United States shall,
on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied
the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any
education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance..."
Since one of the most salient gender differences is pregnancy
and child-rearing, I wonder if Title IX could not mean that parenting
students have a right to equal housing (cheap dorm rooms!), meal
plans and other amenities.
Therefore, my work on this book is to determine which colleges
offer housing, day care and other services to parenting students,
and to encourage parenting students to fight for their rights
to education. ---Katherine Arnoldi
Go to parenting students'
stories in U.S. Colleges
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