As social conditions shift, barriers faced by marginalized community college students are increasingly salient. Institutional recognition/identification of these barriers are important first steps to remove them. In this panel, key faculty/staff at Weatherford College address findings from a series of open forums, during which, students revealed issues/barriers from their perspectives.

In this first step, we seek to identify barriers that may prevent marginalized students from successfully gaining entry and completing college. More specifically, we aim to find: • Who are marginalized students? • How do we define marginalization as social conditions shift? • What do marginalized students identify as issues to entering and completing college? • How do those issues translate into specific barriers? • What barriers are more general, across marginalized groups? • What barriers are more specific to individual marginalized groups? • From there, using the problem solving process, we will, in subsequent steps, (a) establish criteria for success, then (b) posit solutions, as well as alternatives, to remove those barriers to success, (c) review how to best implement, (d) implement, and then (e) evaluate, and potentially readjust, solutions based on criteria.

Marginalized students are significantly represented on American Community Colleges. As our demographics and margins are continuously shifting, the demand for addressing the barriers these students face is becoming increasingly salient now, and in the future, as they emerge/shift. The barriers marginalized students encounter are multifaceted: (1) from academic to non-academic factors (2) varying from rural to urban, (3) spanning generations and ages, and (4) crossing borders in terms of race and ethnicity. Institutional recognition and identification of these barriers are important first steps in helping to remove them because both community colleges and our marginalized students cannot afford the consequences of well-intentioned, but ill-informed solutions that, simply do not work. As such, key faculty and staff at Weatherford college have invited students to discuss barriers in a series of open forums. Demarginalizing students mean providing the opportunity to speak and be heard. Based on these forums, initial barriers include: • Lack of access to timely/adequate childcare • Lack of access to adequate health care • Inconsistent academic advising • Lack of courses offered at convenient times, locations, or online • Lack of funding and access to funding • Lack of access to housing and food • Lack of access to adequate transportation • Lack of clarity regarding instructor availability and expectations • Lack of student involvement in their own education process From there, using the problem solving process, we will, in subsequent steps, (a) establish criteria for success, then (b) posit solutions, as well as alternatives, to remove those barriers to success, (c) review how to best implement, (d) implement, and then (e) evaluate, and potentially readjust, solutions based our criteria.