Rashida-Crutchfield-How-Normalizing-Deprivation-Reinforces-Basic-Need-Insecurity-in-Higher-Education

Study findings provide insight on how the starving student narrative influenced students’ perceptions of selves and help-seeking and how or if they accessed support services to mitigate

Families in Society: The Journal of Contemporary Social Services

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Article

Introduction

College is a deeply formative time for

stu-dents in higher education, as it is often a place

where they begin to explore and establish

adult identity and values Blumenkrantz and

Goldstein (2014) posited that institutions of

higher education are places where students

encounter many rites of passage that influence

their development Although this is likely a

reality for most students, for some students

who encounter barriers in meeting their basic

needs, the ability to fully explore these

experi-ences may be greatly impeded Furthermore,

how students perceive these struggles may be

influenced by the personal and societal beliefs

that lacking basic needs is typical of the college

experience As social workers increasingly

become staff on university campuses that provide a range of services to students, these human service professionals must understand how the identity development of students who experience basic needs insecurity may be hin-dered and must work to create opportunities for students to safely receive needed support

1 EdD, MSW, associate professor, California State University, Long Beach

2 MSW, California State University, Long Beach

3 ACSW, MSW, California State University, Long Beach

4 PhD, MSW, associate professor, Humboldt State University

Corresponding Author:

Rashida M Crutchfield, School of Social Work, California State University Long Beach, 1250 Bellflower Blvd., Long Beach, CA 90840, USA

Email: rashida.crutchfield@csulb.edu

The Starving Student Narrative:

How Normalizing Deprivation

Reinforces Basic Need Insecurity

in Higher Education

Abstract

The starving student narrative is a well-known colloquial idiom to describe student struggle

in higher education This rhetoric masks the reality of basic need insecurity for students and normalizes food insecurity and homelessness This qualitative study explores the experiences of

213 students who experienced homelessness and food insecurity Findings show that students experiencing basic need insecurity reported detrimental impacts on their educational success, and their physical, mental, and emotional health Students described feelings of shame and ambivalence as they strived to meet their needs using their own resourcefulness Study findings provide insight on how the starving student narrative influenced students’ perceptions of selves and help-seeking and how or if they accessed support services to mitigate basic need insecurity

Keywords

higher education, homelessness, food insecurity, basic needs, social work

Manuscript received: August 8, 2019; Revised: October 12, 2019; Accepted: October 18, 2019

Disposition editor: Sondra J Fogel

services while denouncing the normalization

of the starving student narrative

There is a common belief that eating a low

nutritional diet or having inconsistent living

arrangements are typical of the college

experi-ence; that students should presume that the lack

of stable housing or access to adequate and

nutritional food sources is a normal and shared

experience among college peers (Maynard

et al., 2018) This colloquial narrative is often

framed as the “starving student” (Maynard

et al., 2018, p 131) Society at large as well as

students themselves may normalize this

con-cept; however, students experiencing

home-lessness and food insecurity in higher education

institutions are reporting unfavorable outcomes

including higher rates of stress (Crutchfield &

Maguire, 2018; Eisenberg et al., 2016), higher

levels of anxiety and depression (Bruening

et al., 2016), and poorer academic performance

than their peers (Crutchfield & Maguire, 2018;

Goldrick-Rab et al., 2019; Maroto et al., 2014)

This study addresses the starving student

narra-tive for higher education and explores the

experiences of students who lack critical basic

needs

Basic Need Insecurity in

Higher Education

Recent research has identified that a

signifi-cant percentage of college and university

stu-dents are experiencing basic need insecurity

To explore basic needs, this study focused on

food insecurity and homelessness According

to the United States Department of

Agricul-ture Economic Research Services (USDA

ERS), food insecurity is a reduction in the

quality of diet and interrupted eating patterns

due to the lack of monetary means or other

resources to access food (Coleman-Jensen

et al., 2017) Research on food insecurity

revealed that rates are between 25% and 50%

of students in colleges and universities

(Crutchfield & Maguire, 2018; Dubick et al.,

2016; Goldrick-Rab et al., 2018, 2019; Wood

et al., 2016)

The education subtitle of the

McKinney-Vento Act, as amended by the Every Student

Success Act, defines homelessness as a lack

of regular, fixed, and adequate nighttime resi-dence (Hallett et al., 2019) Study showed that 45% of students experienced housing insecu-rity and 5.4% of students experienced home-lessness at the University of Massachusetts, Boston (Silva et al., 2017) The California State University (CSU) system reported that 10.9% of students experienced homelessness (Crutchfield & Maguire, 2018) and 41.7% of students in the City University of New York system reported experiencing housing insta-bility (Tsui et al., 2011) Researchers have recently found that the rate of homelessness and housing insecurity among students in Cal-ifornia community college is higher than that

of students at 4-year universities, with 19% of students reporting homelessness and 60% report experiencing housing instability (Gold-rick-Rab et al., 2019)

The Starving Student Narrative

There has been very limited research unpacking the starving student narrative What research does exist suggests that students in higher edu-cation perceive a lack of basic needs like food

as a common and shared experience and a rite

of passage for any collegiate journey (May-nard et al., 2018) Students who experience food insecurity, homelessness, or both may normalize and attempt to adapt to their experi-ences; however, they have also reported real struggle when having inadequate access to food, housing, and financial resources (Crutch-field & Maguire, 2019) Many students who experience basic need insecurity believe that they must simply persevere rather than seek support Although some students do seek sup-port services, many students who do not have the fiscal resources to afford food and housing still believe their needs are not severe enough

to warrant assistance (Crutchfield & Maguire, 2019)

Colloquially, the starving student is often described as a romanticized experience of higher education (Kopetman, 2017), and only one academic resource has challenged this idiom (Maynard et al., 2018) However, there are similar narratives that have been challenged,

rooted in the idea that individuals must

strug-gle or suffer with basic need insecurity to

ulti-mately thrive unsupported, despite all odds

Employing the concept of bootstrapping and

the Protestant work ethic provides insight into

the sociopolitical undertone of the starving

stu-dent cliché Conceptually, bootstrapping, or

striving for upward economic and social

mobil-ity through hard work, self-determination, and

responsibility, originated from Horatio Alger

in the early 19th centur Alger wrote stories of

how young boys climbed up the economic

lad-der from poverty through hard work and

inde-pendence (Rooks, 2012) The bootstrap myth

assumes that everyone striving to achieve and

advance has the means to do so solely through

personal autonomy and self-perseverance

This framing is often used to blame those who

experience economic inequality and poverty

for their own failure to achieve prosperity

(Lardier et al., 2017)

Similar to bootstrapping, the Protestant

work ethic is also rooted in framing success

with hard work and self-discipline (H B Jones,

1997) Coined by Max Weber, the Protestant

work ethic, or the Calvinist work ethic, asserts

endurance, self-control, and practicality as a

direct result of adherence to the values

pro-moted by the Protestant faith (Westby, 2019)

Like bootstrapping, the protestant work ethic

reinforces superiority of those with the means

to achieve and justifies economic and social

inequities as a consequence of idle behaviors

Neither bootstrapping nor the Protestant work

ethic ideologies include the economic and

social privilege or the experience of individuals

who endure oppression and marginalization

based on race, ethnicity, gender, sexual

orienta-tion, disability, and socioeconomic status as

barriers to success or lack thereof

Both bootstrapping and the Protestant

work ethic may not only influence societal

views of basic need insecurity but may also

frame how students who experience these

issues perceive themselves and their needs

Students may perceive their journey through

college as greatly dependent on self and their

ability to work hard and achieve, while

deem-ing skippdeem-ing meals or crashdeem-ing with friends

a necessary struggle or as a typical college

experience However, increasing research suggests that students are experiencing real deprivation in food and housing (Crutchfield

& Maguire, 2018; Goldrick-Rab et al., 2018) Although the starving student narrative is a common expression within and outside of higher education institutions, students who experience basic need insecurity experience a unique set of challenges and barriers, influ-encing their access to support to mitigate the overall of effects of basic need insecurity

Student Identity Development

As students encounter barriers to basic needs like that of food and housing, they, like their peers, are also developing their identity which

is a critical part of their student experience

in higher education (S Jones & Abes, 2013) Chickering’s identity development theory, built on Erik Erikson’s stages of psychosocial development, provides a framework for under-standing identity development during college years and suggests that identity formation occurs over the course of seven interconnected vectors (Chickering & Reisser, 1993) Particu-larly Vector 5, establishing identity, addresses

a combination of self-reflection and how stu-dents are perceived by others This combined internal and external perception shapes iden-tity and leads to a sense of self-satisfaction (Chickering & Reisser, 1993) In addition, Kauffman (2017) suggests that the college experience promotes a student’s development

of a class-based identity given that higher edu-cation is associated with an outcome of upward socioeconomic mobility This identity related

to intended socioeconomic progress, however,

is not guaranteed unless it is acknowledged by other significant players at universities and colleges such as peers, or university staff, administrators, and faculty who support this progression

Similarly, validation theory supports the idea that student success is built, in part, by identifi-cation and belonging to their campus commu-nity Validation theory proposes that college students, particularly marginalized students, are not the sole proprietor of success; that the

exchange between students, faculty, and staff is

dynamic and fundamental to engaging and

sup-porting student success (Rendón, 1994; Rendón

Linares & Muñoz, 2011) Validation theory

sup-ports the perspective that students may identify

themselves as isolated and disconnected from

their college and university environments, and

require faculty, staff, and administrators be

accountable for actively seeking out students

who are more likely to struggle in silence and

avoid seeking help This is of great relevance

for students who experience basic need

insecu-rity Aware that hunger and homelessness can

be stigmatized, many students purposefully

hide their circumstances and are unwilling to

discuss their difficulties with those who are able

to help (Gupton, 2017; Tierney & Hallett, 2012)

Similarly, students who experience food

insecu-rity may wait until their needs are most dire

before they seek campus support (Crutchfield &

Maguire, 2018, 2019) Rendón’s (2002)

conclu-sions suggest that those who choose to support

higher education attainment for marginalized

students should consider how the normalization

of struggle like basic needs insecurity shapes the

perspective of students and how they form their

identities and determine if they are in need for

support services

Together, these theoretical perspectives

sug-gest that student identity is developed through

a reciprocal relationship grounded in how

stu-dents see themselves and how student peers,

staff, faculty, and administrators perceive and

engage them Equally, normalizing basic need

insecurity, reinforcing the starving student

identity in college, may influence students’

identity development and aggravate challenges

to developing support for students This study

examined the following research questions:

Research question 1: What is the

preva-lence of food and housing security?

Research question 2: How do students

describe how basic need insecurity

influ-ences their overall well-being?

Method

The CSU (2018) is the largest system of senior

higher education in the United States, with 23

campuses and over 478,000 students This study utilized the qualitative findings from the second of a three-phase study that explored basic need security for CSU students with a particular focus on how students describe their experiences with food insecurity and home-lessness and how they incorporated a lack of basic needs into their identity development

Participants

For this study, a survey was distributed to a census sample of CSU students by email across all 23 CSU campuses; an average of 5.76% of students on each campus who

com-pleted the entire survey (N = 24,324) This

included undergraduate and graduate stu-dents All participants who were identified in the survey as food insecure, homeless, or both were invited for interviews and focus groups

An in-depth qualitative data strategy was uti-lized to obtain a rich, thick, descriptive data set indicative of the experiences students with insecure basic needs (Geertz, 1973; Guest

et al., 2012; Huberman & MiJorge, 2002) Qualitative study was well suited as a method-ological approach because it allowed for the exploration of higher education as experi-enced by these students and how they make meaning of their experience (Creswell, 2007; Gibson & Brown, 2009; Merriam, 2009) This study relied on recruitment of participants who were willing to discuss their experiences with basic needs insecurities, which inevita-bly left out students who were unable or unwilling to participate, were uncomfortable exploring these issues, or do not consider themselves insecure in these ways

Eleven CSU campuses were targeted for qualitative data collection to ensure perspectives from northern, central, and southern Califor-nia and to include urban, suburban, and rural experiences and 213 students participated; demographic information for the qualitative sample can be found in Tables 1 and 2 Stu-dents took part in 60- to 90-min semi-struc-tured interviews and focus groups, were offered US$15 gift card incentives, and were asked broad, open-ended questions about their experiences with food and housing insecurity

Data were recorded and transcribed verbatim

Students were asked to select pseudonyms to

protect their privacy An in-depth description

of the research tools and their construction are

provided in a public source research

measure-ment guide (Crutchfield & Maguire, 2017)

The survey and qualitative protocols and

pro-cedures for this study were reviewed and

approved by the fourth author’s institutional

review board

Qualitative data analysis took place

through-out the data collection process before

formal-ization toward the conclusion of the study and

used the constant comparative method (Glaser

& Strauss, 1967) Open coding was conducted

on each transcript (Corbin & Strauss, 2008),

maintaining openness to all ideas presented by

the participants without preconceived notions

about what codes and themes might appear

(Saldaña, 2009) Preliminary codes and themes

were developed (Creswell, 2007) In a second

cycle of coding, data were reduced and

ana-lyzed, compared, and condensed to develop

more accurate codes and themes Codes and

themes were then changed and reorganized

throughout the analysis process to determine

the most accurate and descriptive analysis

pos-sible (Lincoln & Guba, 1985)

Findings

Throughout the data analysis process, central

themes emerged from the data: (a) students

who experience basic need insecurity are

impacted physically, mentally, and academi-cally; (b) despite negative impacts, students may normalize basic needs insecurity; and (c) students will go to great lengths to mitigate the impact of insecurity, but often do not link with services Together, these themes pre-sented a picture of how students conceptual-ize their experience with basic need insecurity

in higher education and how their thinking influenced their perceptions of themselves, their needs and their interactions, or lack thereof, with support services

Physical, Mental, and Academic Repercussions of Basic Need Insecurity

Students spoke at length about their experi-ence with basic need insecurity and its adverse effects on their physical, mental, emotional, and academic well-being Students who experi-enced homelessness often couch surfed, lived

in vehicles, or in places not intended for habi-tation Finding stable housing was difficult for students and when they did, that meant having

to give up or cut back in other areas Many students prioritized housing over food and other needs because their fear of homelessness was unbearable With limited resources, stu-dents reported having to make difficult changes to their food intake as other financial demands could not be reduced or postponed Participants often reported having to prioritize

Table 1 Qualitative Sample Race/Ethnicity.

Numbers by race Sample Black/African American White Latinx Asian Bi/multi Native American Decline to state

Table 2 Qualitative Sample, Gender and Age.

Sample

Male Female nonconformingTrans/gender Decline to state 18–20 21–25 26–30 Over 30

which one of their basic needs was more

important, asking themselves what they could

do without Alex, a student who struggled with

food insecurity, spoke of choosing between

food and rent:

For me, it’s like you have all these bills that are

non-negotiable, you can’t lower your rent for

that month or for that week, you can’t do it with

your car payment or your insurance, but food

you can skip.

Participants reported that the lack of

ade-quate food or housing on a daily basis

nega-tively affected their physical health Emily,

who spoke about her experience lacking

ade-quate nutrition said, “I’ve recently

experi-enced dizziness, loss of balance, trouble

focusing, and a little bit of depression.”

Stu-dents who reported inconsistent daily or

weekly eating habits also experienced health

complications inclusive of irritable bowel

syndrome (IBR), insomnia, excessive weight

gain or loss, as well as hormonal and

meta-bolic imbalances For instance, Tiffany, who

was food insecure said,

I’ve been dealing with my insomnia when I

didn’t have anything to eat and then when I

finally had a lot of food to eat I would eat too

much and then, I kinda like struggled with some

stomach issues like IBS I was eating what I

could afford like chips or tacos or something

that was a low price I couldn’t afford to eat

healthy like a salad or vegetables I just didn’t

have the money.

Jill, who was also food insecure, said that her

doctor told her that her increasing weight gain

could be due to food insecurity and ongoing,

escalated stress She said,

I may not look like it, but there’s days I don’t eat

nothing There’s days I’m at school all day and

haven’t ate The doctor said that’s part of the

problem with the inability to lose weight That

not eating, then eating, then not eating has got

my metabolism so screwed up that it doesn’t

know if it’s coming or going.

Several students indicated that their

expe-rience with food and housing insecurity also

affected their mental and emotional health Students also disclosed suffering from depres-sion and anxiety Erika, a student who said she struggled with mental illness as a result of both housing insecurity and family conflict said,

Because of my severe depression, my level of stress, and my general anxiety, during exams and

in studying I would just blank out I would just read and it would not make sense to me I just like started to cry how am I supposed to get a degree at the school if I can’t even study because

of everything that’s going on?

Many students found it difficult to focus on academics while homeless or food insecure Students also reported high stress levels as they attempted to balance academic demands with housing and food insecurity Rain, who was both food insecure and homeless, felt ambivalence in that she loved coming to school and learning, yet it became a huge source of stress and worry as she strived to maintain her grades and interactions with her peers She said,

Coming to school for me has always been a delight, something I look forward to But all of a sudden, school was probably one of the things that I hated throughout the process, [crying] um because all of it was just more stress [crying] everything from homework assignments Something as simple as not having WiFi, an outlet to plug in a computer, phone, and necessities that you don’t really realize that you need as a student.

Bernard, who was low food secure and regularly relied on low cost canned food described,

it’s very hard to concentrate You’re exhausted You couldn’t read a book and you fall asleep It’s not easy Even in class, it really has affected I’m so stressed out trying to get things done It’s gotten hard.

Clark, who was homeless, said that he tried

to do well in most of his classes, but had to

“sacrifice one class” to find time to find places

to sleep He said,

This semester when my housing was really

insecure was rough I was smart enough to

know if I wasn’t going to do well to sacrifice

one class, not all of them I was on academic

probation for the semester after that.

Another student, Mia, who was homeless,

reported that she struggled to remain focused

in class, recounting, “I would be in class but

my mind would be drifting, ‘Hey, oh my God,

what am I going to do today?’” Many students

reported difficulty concentrating or studying

due to the lack of adequate nutrition and

hous-ing instability Elizabeth, who lived in her car

and slept on friends couches, said “I ended up

failing a class, which I had to retake I was

getting a C in it, but I ended up getting a D

because I was so depressed, I didn’t go to the

final.”

Framing Their Own Narrative

Participants who were food insecure,

home-less, or both often discussed their perception

of themselves and how they felt perceived by

others related to their capacity to meet their

basic needs For some, struggling to make

ends meet and asking for help created a

feel-ing of shame and self-doubt For others,

man-aging with very little and navigating very

difficult circumstances resulted in feeling

empowered Consistently, students perceived

basic needs insecurity as typical of the college

experience

Ophelia, like many of her peers, spoke

about the shame she felt receiving

Supple-mental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP),

commonly referred to as food stamps As a

student and mother of four, Ophelia knew that

she needed help feeding her family She

worked full-time, but did not have enough

money to support her family Still, she said

she did not discuss this with anyone because

she felt shame in needing support She said,

“A lot of people think that when you get

[SNAP] you’re using it in useless stuff

they’re kind of shaming you about it So I

don’t really like to talk about it.” She said she

felt depressed at times, concerned about

sus-taining her family, studied to increase income,

and worried about how people around her might think of her

Participants were asked if they spoke with anyone on campus, their professors, support staff, or their peers in an effort to seek help Repeatedly, students said they did not discuss their experiences with anyone; that the inter-view was the first time they had spoken about their struggles Some students attributed their silence to a need for privacy Many said things like, “It’s not their job to help me,” suggesting that staff and faculty were on campus to help them learn, not to support their private lives Pauline, who was living in a storage unit at the time of her interview, said, “I try not to let my personal life interfere with my academic or professional life, so I don’t say anything.” Some students spoke to faculty only when they had no other choice When their grades were precariously low, students felt compelled

to discuss their struggles with their professors and were sometimes surprised by resulting empathy

However, some students felt a strong desire

to seek assistance despite any stigmatization they might experience There were participants who knew that, despite any internal or external stigma, they needed support to achieve gradua-tion Beto, who was a former foster youth, felt clear that going to the food pantry on his cam-pus was necessary He said,

I just know that when I was hungry, I would do anything to get food So, I really don’t care if somebody sees me getting free handouts of food If it’s there and they’re offering it, I’m going to take it.

For many students, the narrative they had learned of poverty and those who experience poverty was that “people like them” do not suffer; “people like them” do not ask for pub-lic assistance Jackie, who identified as Asian American, had been taught by her family that seeking public assistance was out of the ques-tion When talking about SNAP, she said,

I used to be ashamed because my grandmother

is Korean She’s like, “When I came here, no welfare and no EBT.” I get why she says that and takes pride that, but there’s a reason why

it’s there, and there’s a reason why it’s effective

It’s different for everyone For me, I have to

really humble myself and get down to that

point, I was just like, “I’m not ashamed of this,”

because someone who has to speak up.

Many students felt that as college students

and as adults, it was their responsibility to

ensure their needs were met without support

Often, students described hardships like

liv-ing in unsafe housliv-ing or skippliv-ing meals for

entire days, but still felt complete

responsibil-ity to make things better Most of these

stu-dents mirrored Ophelia’s perspective, who

said, “I didn’t wanna have to ask for the

gov-ernment for help We wanted to try on our

own but it wasn’t easy and there were times

when we didn’t have food at all, and where we

were left hungry.”

Unable to meet their basic needs on their

own, most of the students in this study

described how basic need insecurity affected

their self-esteem and identity as students and

as adults Hannah, a student who experienced

housing insecurity, put it this way:

I just wish I could get it together It’s irritating

being unstable It’s hard I feel like I have

low self-esteem because of it too I’m depressed,

other things are happening to me just because I

don’t feel like I have a place to go but I just try

to fake it Try not to let it show, I guess.

Some students worried that discussing their

struggle with others meant that they might be

“making excuses” for their academic struggle

For instance, Pauline spoke about avoiding

engaging service providers because of her

per-ception of how this would be perceived:

And they’ll say things like, “you know, let us

know if you ever need anything.” I’m like okay

But I also don’t want to be like, here’s a laundry

list of things that I need, cause I try to like save

those, you know, get out of jail free cards for

like limited use I try not to like, take advantage

of too many things.

Similarly, Kianna, who had a medical

con-dition that she said was exacerbated by her

food and housing insecurity, did not tell her

professors why she took a medical leave

because she was worried about how discuss-ing her problems would be perceived She said, “I don’t like to make excuses I felt like

it was being an excuse I feel like every-body has something going on, so what would make you any different?” Along with stu-dent’s concern about perception in relation to meeting their basic needs, several identified with the idea that lacking access to adequate nutrition or experiencing homeless was a common and shared experience among their college peers

Normalizing Basic Needs Insecurity

Students in this study reported dire mental, physical, and educational consequences of food and housing insecurity, yet simultane-ously normalized their struggle citing that everyone in college is struggling with meeting their basic needs in some way Many students spoke of couch surfing and sleeping in their cars or other places unsuitable for living as normal For instance, Ingrid, a graduate stu-dent said,

I didn’t even think that [not having housing] would be an issue because everyone does that All grad students do that at some point sleeping

in cars, sleeping in a trailer, not finding a place

to live, getting kicked out I didn’t really think much of it.

Ivan, who couch surfed during his last 2 years

of school shared a similar experience, “I’m not the only one there are lots of students who

do that it’s something that’s not addressed It’s really common.”

Believing that food and housing insecurity are normal during college also led students to negate and cover up the severe health reper-cussions they were experiencing They often attributed these challenges to “growing pains,” lessons to “make them stronger,” or said that “God doesn’t give me anything I can’t handle.” At times, while describing seri-ous detrimental impacts on their physical and mental health, they also dismissed any con-cern for these symptoms Tiffany was asked whether she was seeking emotional support

to cope with her situation She did go to the

campus counseling center; however, did not

feel like she needed to explore the suggestion

given to her to seek more serious support She

said,

They like recommended antidepressants or

anxiety meds which I was on for about two

months but I decided I just didn’t want to be on

them I decided maybe I’m just gonna have a

positive outlook on life, which I didn’t have

before and I think that’s really helping me right

now.

Many participants also shared ways in

which they normalized food insecurity by

uti-lizing survival tactics such as stashing food in

school and work refrigerators, with help from

friends and eating nonperishable items only

Often, participants felt that these strategies

were a normal routine of a “poor college

stu-dent.”

The normalization of food and housing

insecurity also led students to place

them-selves in struggle hierarchy, where they

iden-tified their needs as less significant than the

needs of other students who are also basic

needs insecure Often, because they did not

consider themselves “the type of person that

needs support” or “not poor enough,” they felt

they should bypass opportunities for support

services to ensure that others who were “more

needy” would have available resources Keith,

who was living in a vehicle, exemplified that

narrative:

I sort of have the rugged adventure impression

of myself and I’m just going to do this I’m

going to figure it out and it’s going to be fine,

but I also care about other people When I see

other people staying in their cars and living in

campers and RVs around campus, I’m worried

about them because, like I said, I’m thinking,

they don’t have a toilet, they can’t cook, you

know So, my attitude has kind of always been,

don’t worry about me, I’ll figure it out, worry

about that guy, because he needs more help than

I do.

Keith thought twice about seeking or using

on- and off-campus support services citing

that other students may need it more than

them Similarly, Elaine said she would not

apply for SNAP because, “I’ve thought about

it, but then I’m like—there’s always some-thing that stops me like, no I don’t need it I can get by Or like, I don’t want to go that low.” In some cases, students justified their struggle by placing themselves in a place of privilege over others because they were attending a university For instance, Walter said, “Yeah, I may not always have a lot of money because I’m a student but it’s like,

‘Hey, I am in—I’m going to college.’”

Other students did seek services while nor-malizing basic needs insecurity Several stu-dents said they felt that their struggle would

be transitory, or only for the duration of their college career Karina reported feeling like her struggle was temporary and would end when she graduated college and found a good job She felt physically depleted from food insecurity, but dismissed concern because she would graduate in a year She said, “I’ll just look back at this and it’s going to be funny Not right now, but later on.”

The normalization of basic needs kept stu-dents from seeking or accessing support ser-vices or disclosing their experience to a university administrator, staff, or faculty It also facilitated the minimization of their expe-rience as they compared their struggles to oth-ers, which in some instances exacerbated their circumstances The ideas of personal auton-omy and the starving student narrative, that one can persevere through problems on their own, were also interweaved with the normal-ization of food and housing insecurity Stu-dents often felt that although their struggle was

a shared experience, they needed to be strong enough to make it through, but others should receive support Overall, findings revealed that although students are experiencing severe issues due to their lack of basic needs, the nar-rative of the “starving student” reinforced the normalization of their situation It is arguable that this is also why students who experience these situations have remained hidden within college campuses

Discussion

A college degree can contribute to upward economic and social mobility, especially for students of lower socioeconomic backgrounds

Students in this study expressed the need to be

self-sufficient and independent despite their

struggles, which is consistent with the idea of

bootstrapping and challenged the student’s

ability to seek help as students need for

self-sufficiency outweighed their desire or ability

to mitigate their struggles Although

soci-etally, some may have romantic memories of

eating a cup of noodles or rice due to over

extending financial means as a normal rite of

passage of in college, basic need insecurity

described by the participants in this study

goes well beyond a fun colloquial narrative

and must be addressed Overwhelmingly,

stu-dents reported experiencing physical, mental,

and academic repercussions of food and

hous-ing insecurity, yet often resisted identifyhous-ing

those consequences with the need to access

support services The starving student

narra-tive gives way for students to normalize their

experience and minimize the repercussions of

their situation

The findings in this study show that many

students felt that their inability to provide for

basic needs, being hungry, eating poorly, or

experiencing homelessness, was a normal

experience which, therefore, was a struggle

that they deserved, was a natural part of the

college experience, or was unavoidable This

perspective, at times, appeared to be a coping

mechanism that helped students feel

con-nected to their peers As Ingrid said,

“every-one has this,” as she seemed to feel more

linked to her college community, and a part of

a common struggle that unified her with her

peers However, some students blamed

them-selves and felt a duty to manage their

strug-gles on their own Social workers who provide

programs and services to students in higher

education can challenge this narrative by

pro-viding education on basic needs insecurity,

incorporate this nuanced understanding of

student perception, and support the

develop-ment and impledevelop-mentation of on- and off-

cam-pus services and programs to assist students

Limitations

Study limitations correlate with the

generaliz-ability and gaps in research on the topic of the

starving student narrative Prior research on the topic of the starving student is limited; therefore, research findings are not well sup-ported in current literature and points to the need for further study Furthermore, this study relied on recruitment of participants who were willing to participate in the survey and discuss their experiences This inevitably left out stu-dents who were unable or unwilling to partici-pate Finally, participants were recruited from the CSU system only, which may not be repre-sentative of all students in higher education

Implications for Practice, Policy, and Research

Hurtado (2015) suggests that students’ iden-tity development is central to the educa-tional process and occurs inside and outside

of the classroom This process is framed by the pedagogical practices and policies that are set by institutions of higher education and the individual practices of faculty, staff, and administrators Social workers working

in higher education can form the nature of cocurricular environments through deliber-ate structuring of support services that rec-ognize the needs and perceptions of students Social work or student support service prac-titioners in and around college and univer-sity campuses must make attempts to defy the starving student narrative by educating students about basic needs insecurity, the issue’s prominence on college campuses, repercussions of these insecurities, and the benefit of mitigating these challenges with support

Concurrently, the utilization of support services for students should be normalized Campuses across the country are developing programs and services like SNAP application enrollment support, emergency housing, emer-gency grants, and case management services alleviate basic needs insecurity (Hallett et al., 2019) Social workers and social work students are taking important roles in the leadership, design, and implementation of these practices, and these roles may involve promoting stu-dent support services in a way that does not identify students as “needy,” and increasing