Basic Needs Initiatives at Texas Community College Hispanic-Serving Institutions: Changes in Service Offerings during the Covid-19 Pandemic

ABSTRACT

Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, there were high rates of food and housing insecurity and unmet childcare, clothing, and physical and mental health needs among community college students. There was a growing body of evidence linking these unmet needs to adverse educational outcomes. In response, many community colleges had started to develop basic needs initiatives directed at addressing these unmet essential needs to make college feasible. The Covid-19 pandemic created enormous economic and logistical challenges for all sectors, including community colleges. The purpose of this study was to explore changes in community college student basic needs services and programs. An online survey of administrators at Texas community colleges designated as Hispanic-Serving Institutions was administered in late fall 2020. Administrators were asked about 19 basic needs initiative areas. The results indicate an overall decrease in the number of basic needs initiative programs and services at the community colleges during the pandemic. While specific service provision areas, such as food, childcare, clothing, and training, had the greatest decline, programming directed at financial assistance, mental health referrals, student employment, and on-campus physical health services increased.

Basic Needs Initiatives (BNIs) refer to an array of services and programs designed to provide students with assistance in meeting essential needs, including but not limited to food, shelter, clothing, childcare, transportation, physical health, and mental health needs. BNIs are intended to address the detrimental effects that basic needs insecurity has on student academic achievement and wellness and to promote successful educational outcomes. In the past decade, there has been growing awareness of the prevalence of basic needs insecurity among student populations (Fountain, 2019; Goldrick-Rab et al., 2019), the relationship between basic needs insecurity and poor educational outcomes (Bruening et al., 2016; Maroto et al., 2015; Martinez et al., 2020; Payne-Sturges et al., 2018; Weaver et al., 2020), and an expansion of institutional efforts to address these unmet basic needs (Laska et al., 2020; Twill et al., 2016). The purpose of this study was to examine changes in BNI programming during the Covid-19 pandemic Texas public community colleges with Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI) designations. Two specific questions were addressed: Was there a change in the number of BNIs during the pandemic? If so, which BNIs changed?

Methods

Data were collected via an online survey of college administrators who were likely to oversee student services. The Institutional Review Boards (IRB) at the University of Tennessee and the University of Texas at San Antonio determined the study did not require IRB oversight and review as defined in 45 CFR 46.102 (3)(1).

Data collection was conducted between October 22 and December 8, 2020. An invitation e-mail was sent to the official e-mail address of one administrator from each college. The e-mail described the study, invited participation, and contained a link to the survey. Two follow-up e-mails were sent a week apart. If no response to the e-mail was received, a second administrator at the college was emailed and invited to participate. Again, follow-up e-mails were sent. This procedure was repeated four times or until a survey was completed by someone at the college.

Administrators who chose to participate were directed to a link within the e-mail that took them to the online survey. The survey asked respondents about past and current (i.e. during the Covid-19 pandemic) BNI services. Table 1 contains a list of BNIs included in the survey. For each BNI, respondents were asked, “Prior to the pandemic, did your institution have [specific BNI] for students in need?” Response categories were “yes,” “no,” and “not sure.” Respondents were then asked, “This semester, do you currently have [specific BNI] for students in need?” Response categories were “yes,” “no,” and “not sure.”

Table 1. List of basic needs initiatives

Category	Specific BNIs
Food, Housing, and Transportation BNIs	Meal Planning/Preparation Training or Workshops Emergency Housing Assistance
	Free or Subsidized Transportation To and From Campus
	Subsidized Meal Plans
	Free Meals/Vouchers
	On-Campus Food Bank or Pantry
Childcare and Clothing BNIs	After-School Care for Students’ Children)
	Preschool Care for Students’ Children
	Free Business Clothing for Job Interviews or Jobs
	Free Everyday Clothing for General Use
Financial, Employment, and Social Service BNIs	Financial Planning and/or Budgeting Training or Workshops Employment Opportunities for Students
	Emergency Financial Assistance to Help with Bills
	Referrals to Community Services Agencies
	Help Applying To Public Services such as WIC or SNAP
Physical and Mental Health BNIs	Physical Health Services On-Campus Physical Health Referral to Off-campus Low or No Cost Providers
	Mental Health Services On-Campus
	Mental Health Referral to Off-campus Low or No Cost Providers

As part of the survey, participants were asked to identify their college. This allowed the survey to be linked institutional data such as total enrollment and percentage of Pell-eligible students. Of the 49 public community colleges contacted, administrators at 24 colleges completed the survey for a response rate of 49%. A comparison of colleges that participated in the survey with those that did not showed no statistically significant difference between the sample and the population in total enrollment (t = −0.147, p = .884) and percentage of students on Pell (t = 0.605, p = .548).

Analysis plan

To summarize the total number of BNIs an institution offered, an additive scale was created using the number of “yes” responses in each time period. Measures of centrality, dispersion, and change in the total number of BNIs offered by each institution were computed and reported before and during the pandemic. Frequencies and percentages were calculated for each BNI at the two time points. Percentage change and McNemar Test between the two time points were calculated. The analyses were conducted with IBM SPSS version 26.

Results

As shown in Table 2, prior to the pandemic, the colleges had between 5 and 17 BNIs (M = 11.6, SD = 3.55). During pandemic, the number of BNIs per college ranged from 5 to 18 (M = 11.0, SD = 3.44), with a mean change of −0.62 (SD =1.77). Figure 1 displays the distribution of BNIs at the colleges prior to and during the pandemic.

Table 2. Total basic needs initiatives before and during pandemic

	Minimum	Maximum	Mean	Standard Deviation	n
Total Number of BNIs at College Before Pandemic	5	17	11.6	3.55	22
Total Number of BNIs at College During the Pandemic	5	18	11	3.44	23
Change in BNIs From Before to During the Pandemic	−5	3	−0.62	1.77	21

Figure 1. Total number of basic needs initiatives per institution before and during the pandemic.

Changes in specific types of BNIs during the pandemic

Table 3 shows the frequencies, percentages, percent change, and McNemar Test for the 19 BNIs. Financial assistance programming increased by 20.9%. Employment of students on campus was common prior to the pandemic (n = 23, 95.8%) and ubiquitous during the pandemic (n = 24, 100%). There was an 8.3% increase in colleges offering mental health referral services (before: n = 21, 87.5%; during: n = 23, 95.8%). Only a quarter (n = 6, 25%) of institutions provided on-campus physical health services prior to the pandemic, which increased by 4.2% during the pandemic.

Table 3. Changes in basic needs initiatives before to during pandemic

Basic Needs Initiative Area	Prior to the Pandemic (n = 24)		During the Pandemic (n = 24)
	Frequency	Percent	Frequency	Percent	Percent Change
Free meals or meal vouchers	11	47.8%	10	41.7%	−6.1%
On-campus food bank or pantry	20	83.3%	16	66.7%	−16.6%*
Subsidized meal plans	3	12.5%	3	12.5%	0.0%
Financial assistance	17	70.8%	22	91.7%	+20.9%**
Referrals to community services	23	95.8%	23	95.8%	0.0%
Help applying for public services	14	58.3%	14	58.3%	0.0%
Employ students	23	95.8%	24	100.0%	+4.2%
After-school childcare	6	25.0%	5	20.8%	−4.2%
Preschool childcare	14	58.3%	9	39.1%	−19.2%*
Emergency housing	13	54.2%	13	54.2%	0.0%
Transportation	15	62.5%	15	62.5%	0.0%
Business clothing	16	66.7%	9	37.5%	−29.2%**
Everyday clothing	6	25.0%	5	20.8%	−4.2%
Financial planning and training	21	87.5%	19	79.2%	−8.3%
Meal planning and training	8	33.0%	7	29.2%	−3.8%
On-campus mental health services	21	87.5%	21	87.5%	0.0%
Mental health referrals	21	87.5%	23	95.8%	+8.3%
On-campus physical health services	6	25.0%	7	29.2%	+4.2%
Physical health referrals	20	83.3%	20	83.3%	0.0%

McNamer Change *p < 0.10 **p <.05.

There were no changes in service offerings in many areas. Few colleges subsidized meal plans, and there was no change between the two time points. Around half of the colleges provided emergency housing, help applying for public services, and transportation prior to and during the pandemic. Most institutions provided referrals to community services and on-campus physical health services at both time points.

Some program areas were decreased during the pandemic. On-campus food pantries and food banks were reduced by 16.6%. Preschool and after-school childcare services were reduced by 19.2% and 4.2%, respectively. Programming directed at supplying students with business-style clothing decreased by 19.2% and everyday clothing decreased by 4.2%. Training programs directed at financial budgeting and training decreased by 8.3% and meal budgeting and training decreased by 3.8%.

Discussion

The study specifically examined changes in BNI offerings at Texas HSI community colleges during the COVID-19 pandemic. HSIs actively work to serve underserved populations (Garcia, 2019) including low income, first generation, and students of color (Núñez et al., 2016). HSIs are often less well-resourced than other colleges and universities (Duran & Núñez, 2021), especially at the community-college level (Núñez et al., 2016) despite enrolling students who have greater unmet basic needs (Goldrick-Rab et al., 2019). HSIs are a diverse group of institutions ranging from broad access to more selective colleges and universities with a variety of organizational missions and purposes (Núñez et al., 2016). Yet, community college HSIs are uniformly open enrollment institutions with missions that reflect support for and response to their broader communities. Federal policies, including those enacted during the Covid pandemic, prioritize criteria that disadvantages HSIs (Miller, 2020).

Despite challenges, these institutions maintain a high level of BNI activity. Changes to specific types of BNIs offered showed patterned institutional responses that were reflective of the larger community context and the centrality of the BNIs to the institutions.

What worked? In what ways did it work? How did you know it worked?

The first approach to consider what worked is to examine changes in BNIs per institution between the two time points. The range of BNIs offered changed from 5 to 17 BNIs per institution before the pandemic to 5 to 18 BNIs per institution during the pandemic. Additionally, while the mean BNI per institution decreased, it was a reduction of fewer than 1 BNI per institution and the difference between the two time points was not statistically significant. The fact that BNIs were preserved or added during the pandemic is evidence that BNIs were determined to be important or effective enough to be maintained through the crisis.

A second approach to consider whether BNIs worked is to examine changes in types of BNI programs offered. That is, to consider the continued provision, as well as addition, of BNI programs. Financial assistance, mental health referrals, on-campus physical health services, and student employment BNI all increased. The increase in number of institutions offering financial assistance may have been related to federal programs directed at providing support to college students during the pandemic. The other areas where additional programming was seen may be a result of increased demand or awareness of the importance of these services to creating a safe and productive learning environment.

An additional aspect of BNI programming that can be understood to have worked are BNIs which utilize referrals to services in the community, including social services, mental health, and physical health referrals. These BNIs were either unchanged or added. The colleges facilitated and maintained connections in their communities in ways that mirrored the larger community response to the pandemic and provided basic needs support programming for students.

What did not work? In what ways did it not work? How did you know it did not work?

Not all aspects of community college pandemic response resulted in changes to BNIs that can be deemed as evidenced that the response worked. First, there were specific BNI programming areas cut that may have undermined students’ abilities to remain in college. Food pantries, meal vouchers, and meal planning and training all decreased. While some Texas community college HSIs were able to maintain these food-related programs, many suspended them with the intention of bringing them back in the future. The elimination or suspension of the food related BNI programs were a result of choices made by college leadership during the pandemic. It is not clear if this was done to preserve other programming deemed to be more important, if the food related BNIs were seen a nonessential, or if the logistics of providing these services during the pandemic was determined to be too challenging. Regardless of the reasoning, these programs were systematically suspended or eliminated at many institutions. Given the prevalence of food insecurity prior to the pandemic and the increase in food insecurity during the pandemic, the choices made to eliminate programming may have been determinantal to students who needed the services.

Second, not all BNI programming that could be offered remotely was maintained. For example, training programs (i.e., financial and food) could have been offered remotely much like classes that were shifted to an online environment. Yet, these areas were cut. It is not clear how or why these decisions were made but choosing to allow these programs to be halted makes it clear that they are not perceived as central to the functioning of the institution.

Finally, BNIs are intended to make going to college feasible through addressing essential unmet needs. Since the start of the pandemic, there has been more than 10% decrease in community college enrollment (National Student Clearinghouse, 2020). This occurred in a context were BNIs services in areas such as childcare were suspended. Additionally, our data cannot be used to determine if remaining BNIs in areas such as those directed at mental health were able to meet student demand. Therefore, it is questionable whether BNIs were able to create the support needed to keep students from stopping-out or dropping-out for financial, health, childcare, or other reasons.

Lessons learned

There were key lessons learned about BNIs during the pandemic. First, many BNIs were determined by college leadership to be important enough to preserve or add. Second, institutional responses reflected larger societal responses to the crisis. This occurred through the direct impact of policy interventions and through an indirect mirroring of response in the community.

Closing summary

Colleges preserved or offered more BNIs in response to some of the health and economic impacts of the pandemic. Yet, there were also cuts to BNIs that may have left students underserved. Based on decisions made to preserve and add programming, BNIs are necessary services to meet the needs of students and promote educational success. These responses underscore the importance of BNI programming as community colleges with HSI designations work to make higher education feasible for all students.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the ECMC Foundation [Grant #G-1906-12740 | College Success].