Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Working Class In The Library, Robert Schroeder

Library Faculty Publications and Presentations

Portland State University is an urban, access university. This means that students don’t face nearly as many academic barriers, such as entrance exams, in order to attend PSU as opposed to other colleges. Nevertheless, students do encounter many hidden barriers that affect their chances of getting into, staying at, and graduating from PSU—barriers associated with race, gender, citizenship, abilities, and the topic of this article—socioeconomic status. We need to acknowledge that all of these characteristics intersect and play out differently, so it’s hard to look at just one of these characteristics at a time. “Working class” isn’t the same experience …