Lgbtqa+ students and completion and retention narratives
Jennifer E. Joslin · 2023
This chapter points to personal, interpersonal, sociopolitical, economic, cultural, structural, and institutional factors that act as barriers to progression and graduation. One of the dominant narratives in US higher education during the last 15 years has been the college completion narrative. The literature affirms the importance of LGBTQA+ student centers in providing safe spaces for queer and trans students to connect with one another, sharing on- and off-campus community resources, helping students feel welcome on campus, engaging in curricular discourse, positively influencing self-esteem, increasing sense of belonging on campus, and serving as examples of inclusion. Unless advisors and advising administrators are reading LGBTQA+ scholarship, they are likely to only encounter the national conversation on completion. In the meantime, academic advisors and administrators, student affairs personnel, LGBTQA+ student services coordinators, and LGBTQA+ student leaders themselves continue the relentless advocacy work necessary for LGBTQA+ student success.