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| December 3, 2020 Shelton Mason County Journal |  |
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Page A-16 Shelton-Mason County Journal Thursday, Dec. 2020
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The League of Women Voters of
Mason County received some in—
sights on how student access to high-
er education can intersect with issues
of racial equity thanks to a Nov. 17
address by Jeannette Smith, interim
associate dean of student affairs and
engagement at The Evergreen State
College.
Smith cited data from the Ameri-
can Council on Education’s partner-
ship with the Andrew Mellon Foun-
dation to produce “Race and Ethnic-
ity in Higher Education: A Status
Report” in 2019 and 2020.
“This is still relevant, because we
have people in our community who
still believe racism ended when Pres-
ident Obama was elected,” Smith
said. “We have people in our commu-
nity who believe that everybody be-
came equal with the 1960s’ passing of
the Civil Rights Act.”
Smith said misconceptions about
how much progress has actually been
made toward racial equity can im-
pede further progress toward equity.
For women of color who want,to
complete graduate studies, Smith
drew from her research and her expe-
rience to identify three “huge factors”
that can be barriers to such a goal:
money, understanding the social
norms and capital of the institution,
and time.
However, as much as Smith ac-
knowledged that factors including
income, wealth, geography and age
can affect one’s access to higher edu—
cation and success, she zeroed in on
race and ethnicity as the most pre—
vailing factors, and the most salient
predictors of such access and success.
Smith pulled up US. Census sta—
tistics showing that the more post-
secondary education you attain the
more you increase your opportunities
to earn higher incomes. thile this
trend remains true across races and
ethnicities, Smith pointed out that
Black people earn less than their
equally educated white and Asian
counterparts.
Smith added that Black students
persist and complete bachelor’s de-
grees at lower rates than any other
racial or ethnic group, “so we’re get-
ting a lot of students into school, but
we’re not necessarily seeing those
students return, year after year.”
At the same time, Smith reported
that Black students also borrow mon-
ey at higher rates to complete their
degrees compared with peers in oth-
er races and ethnicities, for reasons
ranging from predatory lending to
“lack of access to knowledge, to make
informed decisions.”
V Smith summed up these findings
by saying of Black people, “We’re
graduating less, we’re making less
and we owe more.” ,
Smith then listed a number of con—
tributing factors beyond Black stu-
dents’ control, including generational
poverty, inequitable school funding,
implicit bias and the school-to-prison
pipeline. .
Smith sees one solution in data
showing that, not only do students,
of color do better in the classroom
when they can engage with educators
of color, “who look like them,” but all
races and ethnicities of students are
found to do better if they encounter
educators, administrators or leaders
of color at some point in their own
academic careers.
Smith explained this “supports in-
creased cultural competency” and the I
“ability to navigate a diverse World”
. Jeannette Smith,
interim associate dean of student
affairs and engagement at The
Evergreen State College, to the
League of Women Voters of
Mason County
and “empathy—building.”
Smith suggested steps the League
of Women Voters and community
members can take to bolster racial
equity in higher education, including
tutoring and mentoring students of
color and providing them with intern-
ships to help keep them in college.
Also, Smith said the incoming Biden-
Harris administration could be lob-
bied regarding student loan debt, not
just for students of color, but for all
students.
“A lot of you all are incredibly tal—
ented, caring people who are retired,
which means you have time,” Smith
said to, the League of Women Voters
of Mason County. She encouraged
those who had themselves graduated
from post—secondary schools to take
advantage of their alumni status to
explore what opportunities can be
made available at their alma maters
for students of color.
Likewise, Smith said, “If you’ve
retired from somewhere — a firm,
a business, a nonprofit — does that
company offer internships, or extern-
ship, or community outreach for stu—
dents? Is it something you can be a
part of or something you might want
to start? My point is, you have so
much to give, and now’s the time to
do it, and it doesn’t take much for you
to plug into places that you already
have access to.”
While canceling student debt has
been pitched as a lever for economic
stimulus, Smith also sees it as a
means to achieve economic justice,
to counter the systematic, longstand-
ing targeting of those in low-income
communities who lack the social net-
works or social capital to navigate
loan process through which they in—
cur massive debts with often compli-
cated repayment methods.
Without such burdens, Smith said
she believes students could not only
engage with the economy in more
meaningful ways, but also achieve
generational changes toward racial
equity.
“In liberating those students, we
also liberate everybody,” Smith said.
“When we help those who need it the
most, we lift everyone. When we can
use data to identify a gap, and create
solutions to close that gap, we can
also expand those solutions to every-
body, so that everybody is lifted.”
TI‘ '