University of Arkansas students find ways to balance parenthood with student life

By Andrea Johnson

Feb. 20, 2018 

Before starting a day of classes at the University of Arkansas, Angela Johnson wakes up before sunrise to make coffee and begin her morning routine. With a half-and-half carton in hand, she closes the refrigerator door to see the artwork drawn by her 5-year-old son.

His bedroom door displays a label reading “JAVAN” in black block letters. As the coffee brews, Angela leaves the kitchen to wake him up for school. But instead of entering his bedroom, she rounds the corner to her own bedroom, where he wandered in overnight and fell asleep next to her.

“Javan,” she says in a voice just louder than a whisper. “It’s time to wake up.”

Pulling him upright in bed, she watches his body go limp and slump away from her, retreating into the wrinkled sheets.

“No,” he mumbles into a pillow.

She sighs and tries again, this time carrying him out of bed.

Angela became a mom during her senior year at Yellville-Summit High School, giving birth to Javan just one week short of her 18th birthday. The pain and fear cloud her memories of that moment, yet she remembers bursting into tears the first time she saw her son “because he was just so beautiful,” she said. The life she imagined after high school would not play out exactly as planned, but she’d make it to the University of Arkansas eventually, bringing her little blonde sidekick along for the journey.

WHAT’S THE FUSS ABOUT?

Students who don’t have children are usually unaware of the challenges that come with leading a double life as a student parent. Some students, like Angela, start college in their early 20s as single parents, but others enroll later in life after years of parenting and working.

Their statuses as parents aren’t tracked by the university, so it’s difficult to estimate how many student parents are enrolled each semester, said Susan Stiers, associate director of Student Affairs and dean of students, who helps direct student parents to various resources. She’s referred many to the University of Arkansas Registered Student Organization known as Parenting and Pregnancy on Campus. Student parents formed the RSO in September 2014, and it reaches approximately 40 student parents through Facebook. RSO President Tracie Bellinger finds it hard to recruit new members because there isn’t a university-compiled email list or any other way to contact these students.

“It’s sort of a ‘hope you find them’ situation,” Tracie said.

Tracie joined when she learned the group needed a new president, and she wanted to get involved and act as an advocate for student parents “because honestly, nobody else really is,” she said.

“I’ve personally met with many students who come to us, and they’re pregnant or they’re coming back to school with a very small child,” Tracie said. “And they feel like they’re alone, or they’re not even sure if they can make it through.”

Tracie arrived on campus straight out of high school in the fall of 2014, wearing a ring on her left hand. She and her husband got pregnant during her first year at the University of Arkansas, and she immediately began preparing for life as a student parent. Taking a break from college was not an option for her, mainly because of her scholarship requirements.

She searched for lactation rooms, or designated nursing mother spaces, on campus and discovered there were limited places she could go to pump in between classes.

Going two hours without pumping could be considered an achievement, Tracie said. But not pumping frequently enough can affect a mother’s milk supply. During the time a mother breastfeeds, which for her lasted until her son Ezra reached 15 months old, milk is constantly produced, and neglecting to pump might lessen milk supply and cause pain or leaks.

“I don’t think that parents who are not nursing understand that it is an absolute requirement,” Tracie said.

There are eight designated nursing spaces in University of Arkansas buildings in Fayetteville, but only three of these small, private rooms are accessible for anyone on the main campus. Some, like the room exclusively for engineering students, faculty and staff in the Bell Engineering Center, require a key to access.

For doctoral student Stacy Kimbrough, balancing her studies with parenthood while working to make ends meet is a daily challenge as a single parent.

“Nobody’s going to the grocery store, nobody’s picking up the kids, nobody’s cooking the meals, nobody’s doing the baths, nobody’s buying the clothes, nobody’s washing the clothes, nobody’s cutting the grass, nobody’s doing anything,” Stacy said. “I’m doing all the things and working at the school.”

For 10 years, Stacy has been working as a graduate assistant among other jobs while studying at the University of Arkansas. She joined the student-parents RSO around the end of summer 2015, and there she found a sense of belonging.

Her son David, now 6 years old, has been on the University of Arkansas campus with her on days when she must pick him up from day care or school but return to campus to finish her work. Stacy’s experience doing so has been mostly positive, but she’s heard less welcoming stories from other parents.

Javan has attended classes with Angela before, usually because he had a day off school or taking him home after an appointment meant skipping class. Most of the time he does well and might sit beside her with a coloring book. Other times, he draws attention, distracting girls who wave and giggle or catching stares from her more serious classmates.

“I’ve had some classes in the past where the second I walked in the door, it was like ice in the air. No one was talking. They were all just staring,” Angela said. “I almost wished I didn’t come but thought, ‘okay, we’ll do this.’”

Angela’s professors have been understanding for the most part, except in some cases when the class is a lab session. But there are some professors she doesn’t bother to ask because she anticipates disapproval for bringing a child to class.

“What people need to realize – an improvement that needs to be made as a culture – is that parents are always prepared, but things happen,” Stacy said. “And there needs to be a culture and a campus that is family friendly, so if someone needs to bring their child to school, it can work.”

Stacy reached out to the Graduate Student Congress to inquire more about student-parent resources and realized there weren’t as many as she expected. She ran for a seat in the GSC’s spring 2015 vacancy election and accepted the position, hoping to advocate for cleaner and more inviting nursing mothers’ rooms, more changing tables in both women and men’s restrooms and child-friendly study spaces in the Arkansas Union and library.

“In my quest to find personal resources to help me be successful as a student, I found over and over again a lack of awareness that as a student parent I face a number of challenges,” Stacy said.

As a GSC representative, Stacy hoped to pave the way for more parent-friendly legislation and spur change on campus. Tracie never joined ASG, but she contributed to some legislation as a co-author and sponsor, including a GSC bill that allotted money for improving the lactation room in the Arkansas Union.

In fall 2016, Tracie campaigned for money for student-parent resources. The Women’s Giving Circle subsequently awarded $3,000 to the Division of Student Affairs for a series of five on-campus luncheons meant to inform student parents of helpful programs. Stiers arranged for leftover money to go toward adding official signs outside of lactation rooms around campus.

In December 2017, in collaboration with Stiers and the Division of Student Affairs, Facilities Management staff placed signs outside of the nursing spaces in the Bell Engineering Center, Sam M. Walton College of Business, the Arkansas Union and the Administration Building. Now, in the top floor of the Arkansas Union, a rectangle sign sticks out at the corner, directing nursing mothers to a private room. The GSC bill also provided money to purchase a door bolt with an occupancy indicator, a small end table, a non-slip doormat and a bulletin board for the room.

Although Stacy celebrates progress, she isn’t entirely satisfied yet. The legislation led to a growing awareness of student parents’ needs and made improvements in the nursing mothers’ room but did not gain priority registration benefits for undergraduate student parents. This goal is important because student parents have to arrange their class schedules around their children’s care and oftentimes their work. Though satisfied to see change, Stacy thinks the campus still has a long way to go.

Stacy hopes that one day every building on campus will have at least one changing table in men and women’s bathrooms.

As of February 2018, some Razorback Athletics buildings have changing tables. The Arkansas Union has four changing tables in the third and fifth floor men and women’s bathrooms, as well as three counters large enough to act as changing tables in the second floor unisex bathrooms, University of Arkansas Academic Space Analyst Si Ding Wang said in an email. The Pat Walker Health Center has four changing tables and the Epley Center for Health Professions has one. The Jean Tyson Childhood Development Center has changing tables in every classroom and restroom, but these are not available to the general public.

“It’s not just students who would use (changing tables),” Stacy said. “We’re talking about students, but it would impact staff and faculty who don’t have private offices or any office. It would affect visitors, families and extended families.”

FACING THE COST OF CHILD CARE

Angela graduated high school with newborn Javan and her family in the crowd. During the following summer, she moved to a house her parents bought in Springdale with the intention to begin college in the fall.

“I’ve known that I wanted to go to the University of Arkansas for pretty much forever,” Angela said. “We’ve gone to the football games and basketball games since I was a kid, and I knew I liked the atmosphere.”

Influenced by her University of Arkansas alumni grandfather and father, she knew her future goals included earning a college degree. She attended her first day of classes, but her thoughts continuously wandered to her son at home with the babysitter she barely knew, so she decided on a change of plans and transferred to North Arkansas College in Harrison where her grandmother could help take care of Javan.

After her first year, she transferred to Northwest Arkansas Community College where she found reliable babysitters to watch him. When she returned to the University of Arkansas in fall 2014, she had trouble finding new babysitters she could trust.

She considered local day cares, but the prices deterred her. The Kreative Kids Learning Center in Springdale charges $150 for one week of day care for 18 month to 3-year-olds, the age group Javan would have fallen under, plus additional after-hour charges. This appeared to be her best option, but she decided to stick with babysitters, paying an average $25 a day instead. At least with a babysitter, Javan could receive more one-on-one attention, she reasoned. The University of Arkansas Jean Tyson Child Development Study Center, which offers a day care service on campus, hardly crossed her mind.

“They’re pretty well-known for being unreasonable (in price),” Angela said.

Parents who utilize the Jean Tyson Center pay anywhere from $895 to $970 a month for full-time care, depending on their child’s age, plus a new enrollment fee of $200 and semester fees of $150, according to the center’s website. Half-day care is offered for 3- to 5-year-olds at $545 a month. The center’s child care services are offered to any parent regardless of University of Arkansas affiliation, so long as space allows, said Doug Walsh, executive director for business operations at the center.

Most of the families who use this service involve at least one parent who is a University of Arkansas faculty or staff member, Walsh said. As of January, two families with at least one student parent use the center’s services. There are no discounts available to students, faculty or staff. Student parents may benefit from the quality of care and proximity of the Jean Tyson Center, Walsh said, but he recognizes that “cost is frequently a barrier for student parents.”

Tracie hopes that the RSO can advocate for a student discount in the future, but officials have already explored ways to lower the cost of care since the center opened in August 2012, Walsh said. There hasn’t been a push since then.

“We have certain revenue obligations. We pay our teachers their full-time salary and hourly payroll, and that eats up most of our budget, so to provide a discount requires a different support structure through the university – be it through fees or other sources of revenue,” Walsh said. “Someone has to pay for it. That’s always the struggle. Budgets are getting tighter.”

Angela found her solution in Arkansas Head Start, a federal program for low-income families similar to pre-K but for kids under age 5, according to the U.S. government Benefits website. Javan participated in this program for a year until he was old enough to attend pre-K. Since then, Angela has been able to schedule her classes during the time he is in school.

A CHILD RAISING A CHILD

Carroll Bentley expects to graduate from the University of Arkansas with his undergraduate degree the same year his daughter graduates from Fayetteville High School. Each morning, Madison Bentley, who turns 15 this month, takes the bus to school around the time her father drives to the university. Most days they reunite with a dinner for two and discussion about their days at school.

Carroll got married before graduating from high school at the West Campus Technical Center, also known as Agee Lierly Life Preparation Services, an alternative high school in the Fayetteville Public Schools system. He became a father the next year in 2003 at age 18. About a year after Madison was born, he and his ex-wife filed for divorce. His relationship with his ex-wife generates tension occasionally, adding to the challenges he faces while raising a daughter as a single father with limited knowledge on female issues, he said.  

“For me, it was definitely ‘learn along the way’ because I was still a child raising a child,” Carroll said. “It’s definitely been a learning experience the whole way because of just different milestones that maybe an older parent might be prepared for.”

In 2002, earning a college degree seemed an unattainable goal. But nearly 14 years after graduating from high school, Carroll decided to pursue his bachelor’s degree as a full-time student at the University of Arkansas. Between classes, Carroll works in David W. Mullins Library on campus. He uses grants, loans and three scholarships, including a scholarship from the Single Parent Scholarship Fund of Northwest Arkansas, to pay for college.

The University of Arkansas does not offer scholarships specifically for student parents, but as of the spring 2018 semester, 30 students receive financial assistance from SPSF NWA, outreach manager Christina Meeks said. The nonprofit organization, which is an affiliate of the parent organization Arkansas Single Parent Scholarship Fund, distributes this scholarship to an average of 85 students each fall and spring semester to residents of Madison, Washington and Carroll counties.

The traditional scholarship awards $2,000 a semester to full-time students enrolled in at least 12 credit hours and $1,000 to part-time students enrolled in at least six credit hours, according to the SPSF NWA website. The money goes straight to the students for use with their discretion, Meeks said.

Scholarships are not given to the most competitive applicants but instead to students who meet the qualifications, Meeks said. As a former scholarship recipient and University of Arkansas alumna, Meeks thinks these scholarships serve students by eliminating barriers that might keep them out of school.

JUST ANOTHER DAY

Javan’s bus arrives around 6:45 each morning. He runs with the other kids when the doors open, and Angela watches as his neon yellow backpack bounces behind him. Coming back inside her quiet home she passes a few faint crayon markings on the wall and her own decoration that displays the Bible verse beginning with, “Love is patient, love is kind.”

It’s her daily reminder to take a deep breath and remember that the frustrating moments will pass.

“It’s how I keep myself calm,” she said.

Angela made it to the University of Arkansas as planned, but she didn’t experience freshman year like most traditional students who live in dorms, join clubs and go out each weekend with friends. She may have missed out on a stereotypical college experience, but she’s creating her own college memories while learning to raise the human being she created – an experience that she expects will enrich her life forever.

“After you get out of college or high school or whatever, you’re going to have that, and you can look back and it’s something you can be proud of,” Angela said. “Not everyone can do that.”