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Document Type

Scholarship

Abstract

Solidarity and critical hope support faculty and staff who wish to accompany students, read the current reality of their experience, and imagine new practices that can rectify injustices and promote access and belonging. Here, we describe an example of this praxis by responding to student concerns about injustices in a course registration process. With some exceptions, undergraduates at this institution register for classes according to their earned college credits. At first glance, this meritocratic system shows care to students by recognizing their hard work. However, our analysis shows that it also discriminates against underserved groups of students. Using 10 years of course registration data, we compared assigned course registration periods between different student populations. The current registration process privileges white-identifying students over those identifying as African American/Black, Hispanic/Latino(a), Native American/Alaskan Native/Pacific islander, Asian, or two or more races. Pell grant-eligible and first-generation students also registered later compared to their peers; these inequities persisted throughout their college career. These results demonstrate an example of critical hope praxis for Jesuit institutions in which we accompany students and investigate policies that appear to preference cura apostolica (care for the institution in maintaining the status quo) at the expense of cura personalis.

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