College desert and oasis: A critical geographic analysis of local college access.

Abstract

In an effort to challenge the dominant discourses of college access and highlight nondominant discourses of college access such as geographic racism and segregation, I employ a Critical Geographic College Access (CGCA) framework. This framework consists of critical geographic theories such as power-geometry and spatial mismatch. Using Geographic Information Systems (GIS), I conducted spatial and proximity analysis of urban and suburban areas of a county in Western New York. The results revealed a college desert in the urban core and a college oasis in the suburban periphery. Using a critical geographic approach, this article asserts that a depopulating city consisting of high concentrations of people of color has less college accessibility although more need than suburban areas.

Promoting Access and Equity for Underrepresented Racial Minorities? An Examination of Policies and Practices in Community College Baccalaureate Programs

“…Other studies capture how CCBs increase access for place-bound students and underserved populations (McKinney et al, 2013). Our findings more explicitly emphasize the importance of geographic context of CCBs as critical to enhancing access for URMs, which other scholars highlight (Dache-Gerbino, 2018; Hillman, 2016). For example, communities with larger representations of URMs, such as Latina/o and African American, are more likely to have 2-year institutions within commuting distance and few 4-year options (Hillman, 2016).…”

“…For example, communities with larger representations of URMs, such as Latina/o and African American, are more likely to have 2-year institutions within commuting distance and few 4-year options (Hillman, 2016). Similarly, Dache-Gerbino (2018) illustrates how access within a metropolitan city varies immensely, with fewer college options in communities with a greater concentration of URMs and students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. The placement of CCBs in largely African American and Latina/o communities may subsequently expand access but only to the extent that conscious efforts are made to outreach and create pathways for these historically marginalized groups into these programs.…”

School deserts: Visualizing the death of the neighborhood school

“…Scholars examined food access, for example, in relation to health and the uneven geographies of diet-related illnesses. The concept has since been applied to the geography of a wide range of services including surgery (Belsky et al., 2010; Uribe-Leitz et al., 2018), contraception (Kreitzer et al., 2017), higher education (Dache-Gerbino, 2016; Hillman and Weichman, 2016), and basic healthcare (Dosen et al., 2017).…”

“… 1 Scholars have mapped education deserts to establish which areas across the US have access to higher education institutions (Dache-Gerbino, 2016; Hillman, 2016; Turley, 2009). This is an example of desert analytics that supports our assertion that schools are community assets and it is thus important to consider which communities benefit from having that asset.…”

An Online College Near Me

“…Perceived convenience as a significant factor in college decision-making has been only partially discussed in the college proximity literature. According to Dache-Gerbino (2016), geographic inquiry in college access studies is categorized as proximity research, which focuses on the influence of spatial location on youths' enrollment in college. College proximity researchers (Hillman, 2016;Tate, 2008;Turley, 2009) employed geography of opportunity as a key concept, which originated in the literature on housing (de Souza Briggs, 2005;Rosenbaum, 1995).…”