Some University of Iowa students, faculty, and staff come from low-income backgrounds. Many college students across the country report that they struggle not only to pay for their college education, but to provide for even basic needs like housing and food. That said, it’s important not to equate being low-income with struggling for basic needs. They are not synonymous.
The ways in which we talk and create content about students who are low-income should convey compassion, inclusion, and sensitivity. Creating content about poverty and those who do not have the money they need is, of course, a sensitive matter and sometimes a source of shame and stigma for the student.
Participation in programs targeted to students who are low-income or whose parents are low-income (e.g., Pell-eligible or receiving Pell) are common proxies for low-income. Proxies are used primarily because measures related to students' economic well-being are often unobserved in the higher education context, as parental income/wealth is highly confidential.
While these categorizations or proxies can be helpful in demonstrating context, they are only proxies and not equivalent to low-income. For example, only U.S. citizens and green card-holders are Pell-eligible, so this would not refer to undocumented students.
There are several terms that are often used in the context of discussing students of low-income background. These include:
Socioeconomic status. Tends to refer to a combination of factors related to a student's social class. In the context of students, this typically includes family income, parental education (e.g., first-generation status), and parental occupation.
Underserved. Underserved students are defined as those who do not receive equitable resources as other students in the academic pipeline. Typically, these groups of students include low-income, racial/ethnic minorities (people of color or students of color is the preferred use, not minorities), and first-generation students, among others.
- Races and ethnicities that are included: African American, American Indian and Alaska Native, Hispanic/Latinx, and Native Hawaiian, and/other Pacific Islander.
- Historically underserved students are defined as low-income students, those who are first in their families to attend college, and students of color.
- First-generation students refers to their parent’s/parents’ highest education level is a high school diploma or less. First-gen is acceptable on second reference. There is no standard definition of what first-generation college student means, but it can be used to refer to students who are among the first in their family to go to college (e.g., their parents did not attend college) and/or students who are among the first in their family to graduate from college (e.g., their parents’ highest level of education is some college).
The term underserved differs from underrepresented in that underrepresented refers to racial and ethnic populations represented at disproportionately low levels in higher education.
When creating content about and for students from low-income backgrounds:
- Choose food security over food insecurity (a deficit-focused approach). A student may be facing food security issues or concerns. Hunger is a symptom of very low food security, but hunger and hungry should be used carefully.
- Choose homelessness over housing insecurity (not housing instability). Consider that both housing and food-security issues fall on a spectrum, with homelessness being the most urgent, acute end of the housing security spectrum.
- Dealing with a lack of money, food, and/or reliable housing is a source of shame for some but not all students. Approach the topic with sensitivity and ask exactly what the student feels comfortable sharing in any content that will be made public, including photographs. Encourage a framework that helps students understand they are not alone. Describe the issue as a national housing and financial-aid crisis that pushes many students into these circumstances, rather than a personal problem or one that blames the student.
- Be aware of encouraging any perception that students are “working the system” to get free food or other assistance.
- Don’t use poor, impoverished, underprivileged, or disadvantaged to describe students who are low-income.
- Listen carefully to how a student or another source tells their story and use similar or the same language. Watch for assumptions and biases in your writing about the reasons for their income status, stereotypes, etc.