Big college campuses can overwhelm rural students, so they have started forming their own support groups

Some universities began hosting leadership meetings with
rural students. (Photo by M. Krupnick, Hechinger Report)

When rural students attend colleges and universities, many face daunting challenges, including the size and scale of campuses, finding where they fit in, and feelings of culture shock, reports Matt Krupnick for the Hechinger Report, which covers education. "Few colleges have clubs for rural students to socialize and help each other through challenges, such as feeling out of place, dealing with crowds or public transportation, and even navigating busy freeways. Fewer still have physical spaces for those students to hang out together."

Rural college students recognized they needed to help each other and organized "their own support networks, mostly in the past two or three years, sometimes even without administration support," Krupnick writes. "Most of these rural student clubs have emerged at Ivy League universities or other highly selective private institutions and often have just a handful of members. But the trend is spreading."

Some administrations took notice and started working to support rural spaces. "It's part of a small but growing effort on some campuses to create a stronger sense of belonging for rural students, who drop out at higher rates than their suburban counterparts," Krupnick reports. Some colleges have set aside library space for gatherings and sponsored Q&As so university leadership members can get to know their rural students.

Having supportive rural peers can help students stand up for their opinions, which their urban counterparts may not understand. "At the University of Chicago, Savannah Doty, a 21-year-old senior from rural eastern Washington, said she felt completely shut down when she brought up rural issues in a class about the histories of infrastructure. 'It got steamrolled by both the professor and the rest of the class,' said Doty, president of that campus's Rural Student Alliance." She added, "I've had that experience hundreds of times in classes, in that my rural identity is downplayed. I think everyone would benefit from hearing about the rural experience."

Krupnick reports, "Many elite colleges are starting to ramp up their recruiting of applicants from rural areas, but students at some institutions say the attention ends there. Rural students, once they arrive on campus, often feel as if their colleges forget about them, noted Ty McNamee, a University of Mississippi assistant professor of higher education who studies rural students."

While there is no official count of how many rural college clubs exist, the trend is catching on. "Educators at Purdue University, Kansas State University and Virginia Tech have said they would like to find more ways to support rural students," Krupnick reports. "Virginia Tech plans to create a physical space for rural students, said Amy Azano, a professor of adolescent literacy and rural education there. Even though the 38,000-student university is surrounded by rural communities, she said, it can still be overwhelming for rural students."