By Evan Branyon and Tony W. Cawthon
Written during the pandemic, Campus Service Workers Supporting First-Generation Students: Informal Mentorship and Culturally Relevant Support as Key to Student Retention and Success (2022) reflects on the experiences of students supported by campus service workers, one of the populations that was significantly affected during the pandemic. It utilizes a “unique collection of testimonials, critical essays, and first-hand accounts” to illustrate the lives of first-generation students and how they are supported by campus service workers, who take moments out of their consuming work to offer assistance and community. These relationships with students, who often identify as both first-generation and members of a racial minority, can forge a sense of belonging on a campus that may feel isolating and unwelcoming. Throughout the book, the authors utilize storytelling to provide a more direct perspective on how students have been transformed by the actions of these staff members.
The introduction highlights the benefits of horizontal mentorships (meaning that they are neither faculty nor high-level administrators) and supportive relationships between campus service workers and first-generation students, the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on these members of the community, and the role of campus service workers in the development of “concientización,” a term coined by Paulo Freire to refer to social consciousness. Because the presence of these service workers is seemingly invisible to faculty and higher-level administrators, there is only a small (yet increasing) body of literature about the informal mentorship that they can provide to students.
Part 1 (Chapters 1–4) reviews the frameworks for this discussion, including student identity development theories, mentorship research, and how horizontal relationships are crucial for first-generation students, many of whom also have low incomes, which means that they are not only navigating the unique hierarchies and languages used within college settings but are also balancing financial struggles with tuition and life expenses. Campus service workers can provide them with information about campus resources, guidance about which university staff to direct questions to, or share affirmations with students having a long night in the study lounge.
Chapter 3 is particularly significant for campus housing as it highlights a research study on how custodians serve as informal mentors, especially to residential students, and often see themselves as being more than simply staff. They often serve as parents whose job is to keep their campus families safe and make space for students to talk about their goals, courses, and future careers. It may seem that students can make these connections easily because of the constant contact and the proximity of campus service staff’s work within offices and residential halls. However, social hierarchical structures in higher education can interfere with these opportunities. Part 1 gives us a glimpse into how these connections can pay off by allowing students to see themselves as successful in college and, in turn, stay, graduate, and possibly return to help future generations.
Part 2 (Chapters 5–20) provides a multitude of personal stories from former students whose experiences in college were changed due to the not-so-small moments they had with campus service workers. The narratives focus on the students’ personal and powerful stories about shared relationships formed at unusual times and locations during their college experience. The reader cannot help being moved by how these stories of horizontal relationships reflect the Freirean approach to social consciousness. The narratives vary in type and length, but all the testimonies illustrate themes of validating identities, mentorship, belonging, and post-graduation success and reflect the personal struggles of both students and campus service workers.
In these narratives, relationships between students and campus service workers turned into reciprocal mentorships, where service staff shared advice while students found a connection they were lacking within campus spaces. These encounters also helped service workers to complete immigration and language exams, and students provided support for the workers’ efforts to increase employment benefits. Both groups recognized the systems in place that often do not allow disadvantaged students and service workers to engage with higher education in a meaningful way. In return, students were better able to embrace their own identities, felt seen and empowered, and could build social capital from their connections with campus service workers.
For campus service workers, there is a sharp distinction that others make between their perceived and actual educational levels. Some students, staff, and faculty assumed that the workers were less intelligent due to their position or because they did not know certain words in English. But in reality, as one student described, many of the dining hall campus service workers had college degrees and were able to share important life experiences that may not be learned in the classroom, such as learning how to care for a car or make food. Because of their connections as undergraduates with campus service workers, these students often felt encouraged to continue their education, with several going on to graduate school and even becoming lawyers, staff, or faculty with the mission of changing policy or supporting future students within the higher education system.
One example of how all these concepts were put into practice is a program at the University of California, Los Angeles that employed student tutors to help campus service workers who spoke English as another language speak about their personal struggles. This program employed students through Project SPELL (Students for Progress in Employee Language Learning) and was unfortunately defunded during the pandemic, along with several additional multicultural and first-generation programs at UCLA.
Part 3 (Chapters 21–23) synthesizes these stories by bringing to light how institutions and the communities that surround them can support campus service workers. This section offers a reflection on the previous actions of institutions and a guide for the future work of student affairs practitioners wanting to recognize the commitments of these employees. Through learning alongside the local community (Chapter 21), rallying behind those in vulnerable positions on campuses (Chapter 22), and exploring how campus staff are effectively supporting these fellow friends and coworkers (Chapter 23), campus housing professionals can work to build communities of practice where people care for one another and lift each other up simultaneously rather than at someone’s expense. As an additional resource, the editors list six recommendations in the epilogue for staff to effectively maximize the skills of these workers in support of students.
This book serves as a great example of the power of informal connections on college and university campuses. Not all institutions host similar opportunities for students to engage with staff. Staff in housing, dining, and programming offices can see the connections that their campus service workers can make with students and can use the book’s examples as a benchmark for implementing their own student employment and mentorship programs. The individual chapters can serve as independent stories of student success, yet all of them help paint a broader and brighter picture of support networks and resources for first-generation students who may not have such opportunities otherwise.
Evan Branyon is a graduate community director at Clemson University in South Carolina. Tony W. Cawthon is an Alumni Distinguished Professor at Clemson.