Where students matter the most

By Herman M. Lagon

There is a moment most teachers and student affairs people know too well, but rarely talk about. It is not during recognition day. Not during graduation. It is that quiet moment when you notice a student slowly fading — attendance slipping, participation shrinking, eyes no longer meeting yours. Nothing dramatic. No formal complaint. Just a slow withdrawal. And you begin to ask yourself, not out loud but somewhere deep: When did we start losing this student?

That question sits at the heart of student affairs, though it is rarely written in job descriptions. In conferences, including the recent PAPSAS gathering of practitioners at Punta Villa on April 4, where I was a plenary speaker, conversations often revolve around programs, policies, and innovations. These matter. But if one strips everything down, the real work begins elsewhere — in the guidance office after hours, in a conversation that runs longer than scheduled, in a student organization meeting where someone is finally allowed to speak without fear. This is where education stops being abstract and starts becoming human.

Anyone who spends time on campus can already feel it. The data just helps explain it. Reports, including EDCOM 2, describe students who are not just studying — they are balancing. Balancing tuition and daily expenses, schoolwork and side jobs, expectations and exhaustion. Around one in three are dealing with mental health concerns, often quietly. Many are working students. Some are the first in their family to reach college, learning everything as they go. When they begin to disengage, it is tempting to call it a lack of drive. But often, it is something else entirely — they are simply overwhelmed.

In the region, one hears this in small, everyday ways. A student misses class because the jeepney fare doubled that week. Another skips a school activity because joining means contributing money at home is delayed. A third stays quiet in group work — not because they have nothing to say, but because English still feels like a barrier they are not ready to cross. These are not exceptional cases. They are ordinary realities. And it is in these ordinary spaces where student affairs quietly steps in, often without recognition.

There is a tendency to think of inclusion as access — getting students through the gate, into the classroom, into the system. But those who have spent time in student services know that inclusion is something else entirely. It is about what happens after entry. It is about whether a student who is already “inside” still feels invisible. The one who cannot afford to join activities. The one who smiles through anxiety. The one who is physically present but emotionally checked out. Inclusion, in practice, is not about numbers. It is about belonging.

During a recent session, practitioners were asked a simple question: Who are the students we unintentionally leave behind? The answers were telling. Working students. Irregular students. Those with caregiving responsibilities. Those who cannot speak up. Those who simply do not fit the usual mold of “active.” What stood out was not the diversity of answers, but their familiarity. Across campuses, the same students appear in different forms. The problem is not that we do not care. It is that systems, by design or by habit, often center those who are already doing well.

This is where student affairs becomes less about organizing and more about noticing. Noticing who has stopped showing up. Noticing who stays at the edge of every activity. Noticing who always says “okay” in a way that feels rehearsed. There was a case shared quietly — no names, just a story. A student gradually disappeared, not in one dramatic moment, but in small absences. When someone finally reached out, the issue was not academic at all. It was financial strain, family pressure, and a growing sense that they did not belong. By then, the distance had grown. Not impossible to bridge, but harder.

Moments like this echo what research has long shown — students are more likely to stay when they feel they belong (Tinto, 2012). Studies across higher education consistently point to the same thing: when students feel supported, seen, and connected, they are more likely to persist. But on our campuses, this does not feel like theory. It feels like something we witness in real time. It feels like a decision made in a hallway conversation, a follow-up message sent after class hours, or a small adjustment in a program that makes one student feel included enough to return.

And still, despite this, there is a quiet reality that practitioners themselves carry. Limited budgets. Heavy workloads. Institutional constraints. At times, even burnout. These are not minor concerns. They are real. But what often gets overlooked is another resource that sits right in front of us: students themselves. Their ideas, their creativity, their capacity to co-create solutions when given space. Sometimes inclusion does not begin with adding more work for staff. It begins with opening the process to those who are usually left out of it.

In the local context, the stakes are higher. Education is not just personal achievement; it is often a family’s shared hope. When a student drops out, the impact ripples outward — siblings, parents, entire households adjusting expectations. That is why student affairs work is not just administrative support. It is, in many ways, social impact work. It shapes who stays long enough to graduate, and who does not. It shapes who begins to believe that they belong — and who quietly decides that they do not.

But perhaps the most honest reflection is this: The work is not measured by how many programs are conducted, nor by how many students attend. It is measured in smaller, less visible shifts. A student who decides to stay one more semester. A quiet student who finally speaks once in a meeting. A struggling student who finds one space where they feel safe enough to return. These moments rarely make reports. But they are often where transformation actually begins.

So if there is one question worth carrying forward, it is not whether we are doing enough. It is whether the right students are being reached. Because in the end, the value of student affairs is not found in scale, but in presence. Not in numbers served, but in lives that might have been lost in the system — but were not, because someone noticed, stayed, and chose not to look away.

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Doc H fondly describes himself as a “student of and for life” who, like many others, aspires to a life-giving and why-driven world that is grounded in social justice and the pursuit of happiness. His views here do not necessarily reflect those of the institutions he is employed by or connected with.