Food insecurity among public administration graduate students
| Published date | 01 March 2021 |
| Date | 01 March 2021 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0144739420935964 |
| Author | Daniel J Mallinson |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Article
Food insecurity among
public administration
graduate students
Daniel J Mallinson
Penn State Harrisburg, USA
Abstract
Food insecurity is a pressing concern for students in higher education. Much of the con-
versation surrounding this problem, however, focuses on undergraduate students. But
some research finds the problem extends to graduate students. This study asks the
question of how food insecurity may be affecting graduate students in public administra-
tion. A pilot study in a Network of Schools of Public Policy, Affairs, and Administration-
accredited program reveals that almost one quarter of respondents are food insecure.
This includesone in five students who are completing their degrees online. The surveyalso
found an importantdivergence between the typesof programs food-insecurestudents are
willing to use and thoseto which food-secure students are willing to contribute.Given the
effects of food insecurity on academic success and degree completion, this study has
important implications for public administration programs.
Keywords
food insecurity, Master’s in Public Administration, student affairs
Introduction
Food insecurity on college campuses has long been a “skeleton in the closet” (Hughes
et al., 2011), although it has received a great deal more attention in the last 8 years
(Goldrick-Rab et al., 2018b). Much of that attention can be credited to the work of Sara
Goldrick-Rab and the Wisconsin Hope Lab for expanding research and public scho-
larship on food insecurity in higher education, particularly among community college
students. Being food insecure is associated with a number of negative outcomes
including poor health, higher odds of depression, poorer eating habits, lower grades, and
lower likelihood of attaining a degree (Bruening et al., 2017; Payne-Sturges et al., 2018;
Corresponding author:
Daniel J Mallinson, Penn State Harrisburg, 777 W. Harrisburg Pike, Middletown, Pennsylvania 17057, United
States of America.
Email: mallinson@psu.edu; Telephone: 717-948-6503
Teaching Public Administration
2021, Vol. 39(1) 67–83
ªThe Author(s) 2020
Article reuse guidelines:
sagepub.com/journals-permissions
DOI: 10.1177/0144739420935964
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Broton et al., 2014; El Zein et al., 2017; Morris et al., 2016; Hughes et al., 2011).
Financial independence is a consistent predictor of food insecurity (Bruening et al.,
2017), as is room sharing, reliance on government income support, familial support,
budgeting behaviors, race/ethnicity, and housing insecurity (Gaines et al., 2014; Payne-
Sturges et al., 2018; Pia Chaparro et al., 2009).
Although the phenomenon of food insecurity on college campuses is becoming better
understood, it is still a nascent study. There is wide variation, for instance, in docu-
mented levels of insecurity across different types of institutions. Large universities tend
to have lower levels of insecurity, whereas rural schools, 4-year regional comprehen-
sives, and community colleges tend to have higher rates (Goldrick-Rab et al., 2018b;
Broton and Goldrick-Rab, 2017). Some of this is due to expected variation in the students
accessing these facilities (Blagg et al., 2017) and some may be due to measurement
strategies (Nikolaus et al., 2019). There is little evidence, however, regarding hetero-
geneity in insecurity across disciplines. There have been no studies focusing on public
affairs students. Furthermore, graduate students are an under-studied population (Bru-
ening et al., 2017). When graduate students are included in study samples, their inclusion
is to either yield a sample representative of the entire campus, because the entire campus
population is surveyed, or because they are included in convenience sampling (Bruening
et al., 2017). Thus, there is a dearth of information focused on graduate students and no
studies of public administration programs.
One could assume that food insecurity would be lower among graduate public
affairs students, as many master’s students are employed and pursuing their degrees in
evenings, weekends, and online. Roughly half of students in master’s in public
administration (MPA) and master’s in public policy (MPP) programs are enrolled part-
time (NASPAA Data Center, 2018). With students increasingly choosing to pay for
college costs while sacrificing their basic needs (Goldrick-Rab, 2016), however, it is
important to understand whether such an assumption is correct. If it is not, then public
affairs programs will need to pay more attention to the needs of food-insecure students,
given the implications for those students’ academic success and physical health. It is
also important to understand how to potentially help public affairsgraduatestudents
who pursue their degrees online versus residentially. Little is known about food
insecurity among online degree earners.
This study seeks to begin addressing the lack of knowledge regarding food insecurity
among graduate public administration programs. It presents pilot data from a program
accredited by the Network of Schools of Public Policy, Affairs, and Administration
(NASPAA) at a branch campus of a major research university. This study will first
briefly review the extant literature on food insecurity and will draw expectations for the
graduate public administration population from what is known about graduate students
writ large. This is followed with a description of the survey used to assess food insecurity
and how those data will be analyzed. Results will be presented and implications for
public administration graduate education will be discussed. Also discussed will be the
opportunities for advancing this research across campuses to gain a broader under-
standing of food insecurity in NASPAA schools.
68 Teaching Public Administration 39(1)
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