UC Davis

Community colleges have opened up opportunity to millions of Americans, yet most students who begin community college leave without completing what they came for, whether a course, program, or credential. Research has acknowledged that students hold work, family, and financial commitments while in college. However, we lack a clear, fine-grained picture of how students manage these complex obligations, how they exercise agency, and how they survive and succeed (or not) while attending college. This dissertation follows 30 community college students for two years to understand how they manage their competing commitments, how different types of obligations reinforce and interact with one another, and how students believe these processes impact their academic success. I show how family responsibilities and student employment are central to the contemporary community college experience, and how learning about college policies in an unstable institutional environment presents barriers for students in completing their educational goals. These findings suggest a need to understand students as embedded in their roles as workers and members of their households while in college and that policies aimed at improving community college student outcomes should focus on supporting students in managing their multiple roles.