What Helps Students Get Help?: An Exploratory Analysis of Factors that Shape Undocumented College Students' Use of Academic Support Services

Academic support services are an important institutional resource that can support student success and retention. However, little research has examined undocumented students' resource uptake, aside from demonstrating that exclusionary policies and experiences reduce undocumented students' access to and use of institutional resources. In this article, we use regression analysis to identify what factors may contribute to undocumented students' use of academic support services. Drawing on a survey of 1,277 undocumented students attending California 4-year public universities, we examine how academic performance, situational barriers, campus exclusion, and campus integration shape the odds that undocumented students will use academic support services. We find that campus integration is associated with increased odds of using academic support services, while campus exclusion is not; academic performance and situational barriers have mixed effects.