ABSTRACT
Post-baccalaureate student needs are both distinct from their undergraduate counterparts and incredibly diverse. Making use of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs as a framework, this chapter examines some of the more salient concerns of graduate students, including physiological (food and housing insecurity); safety (debt, stress and mental health, sexual harassment, and unionization); belongingness (including for students with disabilities, BIPOC, women, LGBTQ+, international students, parents); esteem (power and celebration); cognitive (professional development and mentoring); aesthetic (universal design); self-actualization (role and identity formation, agency, and imposterism); and transcendence (self-care and generativity) needs of graduate students. One of the key takeaways should be that post-baccalaureate student needs are diverse, complex, and interconnected. The authors suggest a mindful, holistic approach in which practitioners and researchers develop thoughtful, comprehensive, and ongoing programs of assessment to identify and address the needs of students on their specific campus. They argue that the value of broad usual recommendations is limited to forming a foundation for efficacious local efforts.
