Samantha Vargas Poppe, a consultant to the Lumina Foundation, is seeking volunteers to participate key informant interviews about institutional policies, practices and procedures on administrative holds at Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs) or emerging HSIs. These interviews will be used in a project to amplify existing efforts at HSIs or emerging HSIs to help students navigate holds and mitigate or avoid “stranded credits-- the accumulated credits for which a student is unable to obtain an official transcript due to an administrative hold” is a  challenge to students’ success and well-being. (AACRAO)

Recent research has established that stranded credits arise from administrative holds put on student accounts for a variety of reasons including institutional debt and are estimated to affect about 6.6 million students. (Ithaka S+R) There are growing concerns that stranded credits are an issue of equity because this practice disproportionately affects students of color and those from low-income families. (Ithaka S+R). While there is movement to further research and lead action on this issue, including the No Holding Back project, a joint effort from AACRAO and WICHE, there are few formal programs for helping students mitigate stranded credits. Still, institutional officials are likely addressing this issue on an ad hoc basis.

The purpose of these interviews is to produce case studies that will acknowledge the effort of HSIs or emerging HSIs to support students in freeing up stranded credits, either formally or informally. Ideally, interviewees are an Administrator or other staff, from a HSI or an emerging HSI with responsibility for developing or implementing policies, procedures, or other efforts to help students free up stranded credits due to administrative holds.

If selected, you will participate in an interview that will last 1 hour on a virtual platform. Interviews will be recorded, transcribed, and written up as individual case studies with flexibility on attribution or anonymity, depending on the interviewees' wishes. Participants will receive a $50 Visa gift card.

  ****If you are interested, please complete the short form below by February 21, 2023****

 If you have questions about this project, please contact Samantha Vargas Poppe at samantha@equitymattersllc.com

Thank you for your consideration!