The Vermont Connection

Welcome to The Vermont Connection (TVC)! TVC is the official organization of all current students in the Higher Education and Student Affairs Administration graduate program at the University of Vermont. TVC consists of the two current HESA cohorts, known as the Full Board, and the Executive board, a seven-member board elected each year by the Full Board of the previous volume. The goals and objectives of TVC are in line with HESA historical traditions and regularly adjust to fulfill the needs of its membership.

List of Papers (Total 455)

Institutionalized Erasure: The Influence of Binarism on Nonbinary College Students

The narratives and experiences of nonbinary people and nonbinary college students are still infrequent in scholarship and are viewed as abnormal, niche experiences. Normative ideals are further enforced by the severe lack of nonbinary scholars and researchers. In this paper, I name the challenges of normativity and use the existing literature to explore current obstacles to...

Higher Education and Necropolitics: Tracing Death and Violence in Higher Education

Although scholarship has inspected the role of neoliberalism in higher education, little work names higher education in the United States as an institution that perpetuates death and violence of the most marginalized communities. By engaging in a critical analysis, this research locates and explicitly names higher education as a necropolitical institution, highlighting the sites...

The Great Resignation: Retention of BIPOC Professionals within the Division of Student Affairs

(An audio recording of this piece can be downloaded from the right-hand side bar of this page.) Through our topic of “The Great Resignation: Race and Retention of BIPOC Staff within the Division of Student Affairs” we hope to better understand how the racial identities of student affairs practitioners impact their professional experience. We decided to execute this project by...

Past, Present, & Future: A History of BIPOC Student Support & Student-Led Protests at UVM

(A PowerPoint version of this submission can be downloaded from the right-hand side bar of this page.) University Leadership to have people in their corner that support students, representation and care for students at the university in higher level positions that could create change. There needs to be more Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) representation on this campus...

Community Colleges Meeting Students’ Basic Needs

https://sites.google.com/view/dsp-community-college/home Of the students currently enrolled in post-secondary education institutions, more than 50% of college students are attending community colleges. Of these students, 36% are nontraditional students who are between the ages of 22 and 39, 29% first-generation students, and 20% are disabled students. Community colleges and their...

Speakers of Languages Other than English as an Invisible Minority

American higher education institutions are becoming more diversified. While there are ample recent studies on the experiences of visible minorities and the impact their college or university experience can have in their identity development and emancipation, there is a lot less on invisible minorities. Speakers of languages other than English can feel oppressed, on campuses...

Yes, We Can Rule The World- Advancing our Black Male Mentoring Programs

This article will address the lived experience of a Black male higher education practitioner who served as an advisor over a Black male mentorship program. While the summer of 2020 brought awareness to the life of individuals who identify as Black and Brown, with the murders of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, there have been numerous attempts to right some wrong in America. This...

Place-Based Education as Liberatory Praxis

Indigenous students are severely underrepresented in higher education, and in STEM disciplines in particular. There is a lack of research critiquing the hegemonic culture of STEM programs in the United States that may present challenges to students pursuing these degrees from Indigenous communities. Using Tribal Critical Race Theory and Native Student Identity Development Theory...

Increasing the Educational Retention and Attainment Rates of Southeast Asian American College Students Through AANAPISIs

Since its emergence in the 1960s, the Model Minority Myth (MMM) has been pervasive in its assumption of Asian Americans as a monolithic racial group of naturally high-achieving individuals. This widely accepted stereotype has not only dismissed the educational challenges that diverse subpopulations may face within the context of higher education, but also made it hard for them to...

Exceptionally Flawed: A story about expectations and truth

This is my story about the pressures of growing up as a first-gen Latina from a low-income background who was often told my only option was to be exceptional. Putting my all into everything was the only way to be successful; to be the social ladder for my family. Because of this pressure to always be perfect there were many times when I failed to meet false expectations which led...

Dear Student Affairs: Reflections from a First-Generation HESA Graduate Student

This letter is an invitation for first-generation and economically minoritized student affairs practitioners to reflect on the multiple identities they hold within the U.S. higher education system. The Critical Cultural Wealth Model is a theoretical framework that explicitly examines first-generation and economically minoritized (FGEM) college students’ academic and career...

An Open Letter to the Marginalized Academic: Divesting from Colonial Indoctrination

Paulo Freire (1970) stated, "In order for the oppressed to be able to wage the struggle for their liberation, they must perceive the reality of oppression not as a closed world from which there is no exit, but as a limiting situation which they can transform.

Foreword: The Body of Liberation

By Chantel J. Vereen, Published on 04/15/22

Executive Board Editor's Note

By Todd C. Cooley and Dana K. Prisloe, Published on 04/15/22

Land Acknowledgement

By TVC 43 Executive Board, Published on 04/15/22

Cover Page

Black is being: a poetry series

By Chantel J. Vereen, Published on 01/01/21

Reimagining an Antiracist Career Center Based on the Professional Identity Development Model for Black Students and Students of Color

As a Black college student studying at a predominately white-serving institution (PWI), many departments were not built for me. Learning models, development theories, and functional services were not developed with students like me in mind. In this paper, I will start by articulating my audience and positionality in order to ground where I enter this scholarly conversation on the...

I Remember Being Black

This poem is modeled after Jo Brainard's "I Remember" (2001) which is a poetic prose/novel that recounts experiences the narrator encountered throughout their life. My poem, "I Remember Being Black," is poetic prose that serves to organize many of my racialized experiences inside of and expansive of formalized education.

The Burden of Excellence: A Critical Race Theory Analysis of Perfectionism in Black Students

In this article, I interrogate the ways in which perfectionism perpetuates white supremacy, racism, and anti-Blackness specifically for Black college students. Black students who are considered “high-achieving” often face immense pressure and challenges to be perfect, and this label can feel like a burden. The push to be constantly perfect has serious implications for Black...

Educational Redlining: The Disproportionate Effects of the Student Loan Crisis on Black and Latinx Graduates

Racially biased funding in the United States education system has left Black and Latinx students disproportionately affected by the student debt crisis. Some educational loan lenders are using education data in the loan underwriting process, and Black and Latinx students are at risk for being wrongfully charged additional interest and fees. The United States historically excluded...