Live from #AACRAO2025: Embracing Your Role as a Learner Advocate

By Heather Zimar, Managing Editor, Journals and Publications, AACRAO

In a Tuesday afternoon session titled “Advocating for College Learners: Examining Administrative Policies that Limit Access and Equity,” presenters Vanessa Jackson, Associate Registrar, and Meredith Chilausky, Director of Academic Success & Accessibility and Adjunct Legal Faculty at Campbell University School of Law, and David Williams, Law Registrar at North Carolina Central University, introduced strategies to advocate for college learners. 

“Technically, you are an advocate whether you know it or not,” Williams said.

Jackson added: “Every single day, we advocate for ourselves, our students, and even our family members. We have to speak on behalf of our students. We are sort of gatekeepers in a way.” 

The presenters shared institutional policies currently impacting learners: 

• Legacy admissions 

• Testing requirements 

• Awarding merit-based aid over need-based aid

• Financial aid caps 

• Insufficient aid coverage

In addition, accessibility challenges for learners with disabilities include the lack of knowledge on: 

• Visible and invisible disabilities

• ADA Section 504

• Title II 

• Complex accommodation request processes

• Department policies that limit access 

Also impacting equity for college learners are residency and enrollment status requirements and limited support for nontraditional learners, they noted. 

On a broader scale, the presenters noted, issues impacting learners include: the Supreme Court decision on Affirmative Action 2023 and administrative policies such as the current Executive Orders connected to institutional policies such as Immigration and Customs Enforcement enforcement actions and eliminating diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. 

“Policies are going to change. We have to be a voice for the voiceless,” Jackson said. 

Strategies for ensuring student service practitioners are advocating for college learners include:

• Examine administrative policies regularly: 

• Set a schedule.

• Clarify expectations and outcomes. 

• Revise and streamline processes regularly.

• Current issues include establishing protocols and checking for guidance from state and institutional leaders before making changes to administrative policies.

• Above all, remain mission-focused. 

• Cultivate relationships: 

• Prioritize ethical leadership and transparency.

• Engage in community building and collaboration.

• Empower student agency and voices.

• Foster a culture of respect and dialogue.

• Use data to support change

• Define the policy issue and why it needs to change.

• Determine the most relevant data points.

• Collect baseline data from institutional data sources and peer institutions.

• Revise the policy to increase access and equity for all learners.