Abstract:
Pregnant and parenting students are a demographic that often goes unnoticed and if forgotten
about, creates an environment of isolation for them. They require additional resources from
colleges and universities that are often not met. If these resources are available at these institutions,
pregnant and parenting students often have trouble locating them or even who to contact with
questions about resources. Through a literature review, a handful of studies have been found
examine the needs of the pregnant and parenting student population. From these studies, several
challenges and needs have been revealed for this demographic. These challenges include childcare
availability, accommodations to the academic environment, flexibility in class options and
scheduling, financial aid, affordable housing, transportation and parking, physical
accommodations, and accessible information about resources. After evaluating these problems
through other case studies and reports, this thesis evaluates the current resources at Ball State
University provided for pregnant and parenting students. I then address how these current
resources address the established challenges and needs of pregnant and parenting students.
Overall, Ball State provides resources that address most of this demographics’ concerns, but I
propose several solutions to improve upon the resources they already have and provide additional
resources that will help their pregnant and parenting students.
