Content area
Full text
Healthy faculty and student interactions have been found to positively affect students' satisfaction with their collegiate experience. Positive and frequent out-of-class faculty and student interaction has long been documented as being important to the academic viability and personal development of college students. This article will attempt to provide some insight into ways that historically black colleges and universities could improve their graduation rates by increasing students' connectedness to their institutions. Faculty-student relationships will be examined in the context of othermothering. Critical factors that foster positive educational outcomes for Black students will be elucidated.
Keywords: HBCUs, othermothering, student integration
A critical component of the campus environment that leads to increased levels of social and academic integration for students is faculty and student interaction (Pascerella & Terenzini, 1991, 2005). Specifically, research has indicated that faculty and student interactions positively affect students' satisfaction with their collegiate experience (Astin, 1984/1999). In addition, frequent interactions between faculty and students positively correlate with various academic outcomes including college GPA, degree attainment, persistence, and post-undergraduate aspirations (Astin, 1984/1999). Moreover, increased student-faculty interaction is proven to expand students' general ways of thinking, strengthen problem-solving skills, and broaden conceptualization of various life goals and aspirations (Astin, 1984/1999; Ancis, Sedlacek, & Mohr, 2000). These positive outcomes resulting from sustained faculty and student interaction have the potential to increase student graduation rates and broaden the skillsets of our workforce (Palmer & Wood, 2012; Strayhorn, 2008). This article will attempt to provide insight into ways that historically black colleges and universities could improve their graduation rates; through
increasing students' connectedness to their institutions. Faculty-student relationships at historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) will be examined in the context of othermothering practices, and critical factors that foster positive educational outcomes for Black students will be elucidated. Gilkes' (1980) characterization of othermothering is connected with community-based activism. She stresses the need for community mothering which further intertwines individuals' involvement in their community activities, schools, and political events.
Othermothering: Beyond Mentoring
Culturally and historically, the idea of othermothering stems from the relationships developed between slave women and other slave women's children they cared for, who had been left motherless due to slave trading and other acts of depradation (Collins, 2000). For generations, othermothering has been a means of increasing...