“Why so Many Words?” Students’ Perspectives on College Access and Success Terminology

Abstract

This study explores the perspectives of Black men on terminology often used in college access and success recruitment and programmatic materials. The authors suggest that deficit models often result in student enculturation and arise from linguistic complexity and misunderstandings. The findings provide avenues for student affairs professionals to avoid deficit terminology usage and outline methods to include student voices in college access and success program recruitment and program materials.

Acknowledgement

The authors would like to thank Chris Busey for his feedback on an early draft of this article and Javan Brown for his help throughout the research process.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplementary Material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/19496591.2022.2056475

Notes

¹ The vignettes offered in italics throughout this manuscript are intended as counterstories (Delgado, 1989) to dominant narratives about minoritized college students. Vignettes are composites, drawing upon multiple interactions between Adrienne and students as part of her work in the student support services center. All names are pseudonyms.

² Pseudonyms

³ The terminology “income-eligible” refers to candidate qualification for the program that meets the federal definition of low-income according to candidate household size and family annual income.