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“Student Needs are Academic 
Needs” and the Theological Library
Brandon Board, Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary
Karl Stutzman, Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary

ABSTR ACT Trends in the Association of Theological Schools and 
at the presenters’ seminary indicate increasing diversity of back-
grounds and shifting student needs. A 2019 study by ITHAKA S+R of 
community college students, a population with substantial diver-
sity, indicates a wider variety of student needs than what have 
traditionally been considered “academic needs.” It makes the case 
that all student needs are academic needs, many of which can be 
supported by the library. This aligns with the presenters’ view of 
their students’ needs and the library’s potential role. A discussion 
followed of the ways libraries can contribute with “service models” 
that respond to changing student needs.

OUR CONTEXT

Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary is a small denominational 
seminary located in Elkhart, Indiana, which we acknowledge as 
the traditional homeland of the Potawatomi people. In a given year, 
we generally have around a hundred students enrolled in our MA 
and MDiv programs. Every year, we’re finding that our students are 
increasingly from more diverse and less traditional backgrounds.

TRENDS AT AMBS AND IN THE ASSOCIATION OF THEOLOGICAL 
SCHOOLS

Many, but not all, Atla libraries have connections with the Association 
of Theological Schools (ATS), which accredits graduate theological 
programs in the USA and Canada, including those at our institution. 
Both AMBS specifically, and ATS schools generally, are undergoing 
trends of increasingly diverse student populations, changing stan-
dards for undergraduate preparation, more and more international 



370  AT L A 202 1 PROCEEDINGS

students, students of color, and students from other marginalized 
populations.

One of the ways that we’ve seen this in our own context has 
been through the significant increase in the number of interna-
tional students.  From 2012 to 2016, we had a relatively low number 
of international students—less than 5% of our student body.  That 
has been followed by a rapid increase, up to last year where we had 
nearly 30% of our student body composed of international students.

Our experience at AMBS follows a trend that we’re seeing across 
ATS schools in general.  Over the past thirty-plus years, ATS schools 
have experienced a steady increase in the total number of non-White 
students.  This increase has been so dramatic that White students, 
who thirty years ago represented over 80% of enrollment at ATS 
schools, now make up less than half of the total enrollments (The 
Association of Theological Schools 2021).

STORIES OF AMBS STUDENTS

Data trends are all well and good, but let’s consider what these chang-
ing trends might look like for individual students.  For this, we’d like 
you to consider two separate students that have come through AMBS 
degree programs in recent years. The stories of these two students 
highlight the ways in which historical and contemporary structural 
inequities impact students’ academic needs.

Student #1 is an international student and a non-native English 
speaker.  He moved to campus with his wife and their small child.  
Because of the requirements of his student visa, he is only allowed 
to work for the seminary (so, no finding a job off campus), and even 
then only for a limited number of hours per week.  His wife’s visa 
does not permit her to work.  So this means that on top of taking 
graduate classes in his second language, he also has to find ways to 
support his wife and child on a very limited income.

Student #2 is a local American student.  She is a minority, and she 
comes from a non-traditional educational background.  In addition to 
her graduate coursework (for which she must commute 30 minutes 
to campus), she is also a mother with a full-time job.

Both of these students require support for them to be successful 
in their programs—but as you can imagine, the types of support they 
need vary significantly.  Much of student #1’s stress will be financial—
how does he earn enough money to provide for his family, and how 
does he balance the need to work with time he needs to study?  As 



Listen and Learn Sessions  371

someone with full-time employment, financial issues are less press-
ing for Student #2; her needs lie in the areas of time management, as 
well additional support in navigating the realm of academia.

THE REPORT: “STUDENT NEEDS ARE ACADEMIC NEEDS” BY 
MELISSA BLANKSTEIN, CHRISTINE WOLFF-EISENBERG, AND 
BRADDLEE

In 2019, Ithaka S+R published a report titled Student Needs Are 
Academic Needs, which addressed the ways in which community 
college students rely on libraries and other academic support 
services for a variety of needs—not just those needs that are consid-
ered “academic” (Blankenstein, Wolff-Eisenberg, and Braddlee 2019).  
Now, before we get too far into discussing what the report actually 
says, we’ll give a couple of caveats.

The first is that this report was published in 2019.  This means 
it was published before the world was so dramatically reshaped 
by COVID-19.  So it’s possible (or even probable) that some of the 
assumptions in this report may not be as accurate, or that some of 
the stated priorities will have changed.

We’ll also point out that this report is based on the experiences 
of community college students.  And while it’s true that this is not an 
identical audience to our own students, many of the trends we’ve 
already discussed mean that our student bodies are, if not exactly the 
same as community college student bodies, at least sort of parallel 
due to the diversity of the populations we’re talking about.

What did this report actually say?  Well, one of the key insights 
is that not all students struggle equally, or desire the same support 
services.  We saw this with our two example students—they both 
needed help, but the types of support they needed were vastly differ-
ent.  The report also concluded that libraries (and other academic 
support services on campus) are highly valued by students in 
addressing some of these unmet needs—including both curricular 
and non-curricular information needs.

Some additional points to note are that student parents often 
want more support with childcare, and students generally need 
greater access to technology.

The bottom line from all of these insights, though, is that student 
needs are academic needs—even if it’s in an area that would not 
traditionally be considered academic.  And this, really, is the point 



372  AT L A 202 1 PROCEEDINGS

we want you to take out of this presentation.  A student with unmet 
needs—a student who can’t afford to feed his family, a student who 
doesn’t have any help caring for a child, a student who isn’t able to 
access the technology they need—all of these things represent obsta-
cles to our students being successful.  And if our goal is to help our 
students be successful in their academic programs, then I think it’s 
prudent for us to consider ways in which we can lessen the burdens 
of some of these obstacles. There’s also a moral imperative in many of 
our faith traditions to work toward justice for persons from diverse 
backgrounds that have been marginalized. This additional layer is 
part of our institution’s mission and vision statements, so it’s some-
thing we are passionate about.

The Ithaka report suggested several ways that institutions can 
support students as they navigate some of these hurdles that they 
might face.  We’ll go through these ideas, termed “service concepts” 
here, and we’ll discuss ways that we have tried to address some of 
them in our own work at AMBS.  I’d encourage you to think about 
ways that you’ve already worked towards some of these concepts in 
your own libraries, or ways in which you might implement services 
to help your students in these areas.

SERVICE CONCEPTS

The first service concept, ranked as the most important by students 
at the community colleges studied, was labeled “knowledge base.” It 
essentially means a single service point for a variety of student needs. 
We haven’t done this exactly, but what we have done is consolidated 
the academic support services of the bookstore and the writing 
center with the library. This makes the library something of a one-
stop shop for many types of academic support that a student might 
need as they progress through their degree programs.

A second highly ranked service concept was loaning technology. 
This is also something that our library has gotten involved with in 
partnership with our IT department. For a long time, we had loaned 
out a few laptops, sound and video equipment, headsets, etc. on a 
limited circulation basis. In recent years, we have begun offering 
longer loan periods, even up to a semester on some of our equip-
ment, enabling students to fully rely on our school’s equipment for 
their technology needs. This became even more important in the 
era of COVID-19, and our ability to do this was further enhanced by 



Listen and Learn Sessions  373

COVID-related federal HEERF funds that paid for a new set of semes-
ter loan laptops.

The report also suggests the concept of a personal librarian, a 
dedicated employee available to each student to help find and use 
all kinds of information/content sources.  We’re small enough that 
we’re sort of default personal librarians for our students, but we 
plan on implementing this terminology as a way of trying to increase 
engagement with us in the future.

There’s also the idea of a social worker—a person available to 
assist with various personal needs such as housing, childcare, trans-
portation, etc.  We see this a lot with our international students.  In 
addition to undertaking new graduate studies when they move 
here, they’re also having to learn to navigate life in a country that is 
sometimes vastly different from their own.  Having someone to help 
them with something as simple as grocery shopping or as complex 
as getting a driver’s license goes a long way to easing the burden of 
integrating into a new culture.  While this hasn’t fallen under the 
library’s purview, we do have a person on campus who fills this role.

Child care is another thing to consider—especially when you 
have adult students with their own families.  There’s a wide range 
of services you could provide that would accommodate this.  Sure, 
you could put a daycare in the library, but it doesn’t have to be that 
extreme.  Even just making sure students know that children are 
welcome in the library can go a long way.

The last three service concepts were ranked as less important by 
the community college students, but they’re still worth considering.  
Those are privacy (helping students navigate the increasingly fraught 
world of online technology and the privacy implications involved), 
community advocacy (helping students learn about and get involved 
in local issues that are important to them), and student showcase 
(an opportunity for students to present and be recognized for their 
work in a variety of ways).

Discussion Questions: In what ways have you been working 
towards addressing some of these service concepts in your own 
libraries?  Or, what ideas do you have to do so in the future? Are there 
new services or new needs that you’ve become aware of, perhaps 
brought to the surface thanks to the COVID pandemic?



374  AT L A 202 1 PROCEEDINGS

NEW SERVICES

Now, we mentioned that the Ithaka report was published before the 
onset of the COVID pandemic.  And clearly, things are not the same as 
they once were.  COVID has both created new forms of student needs 
and also exacerbated some things that already existed.  

One thing that has changed about our enrollment since COVID 
hit is an increase in international students studying from interna-
tional locations (rather than relocating to campus). This shifts the 
dynamic with regard to students’ ability to access course textbooks. 
We have also seen students who study on campus (like in the stories 
we shared) struggle to afford textbooks. The COVID crisis has made 
us more aware of the need to take steps to provide course texts for 
our students.  We’ve done this by increasing our investments in 
multi-user e-books and developing a textbook rental program.

Another need that became apparent in recent years was the level 
of food insecurity among our students. At the initiative of various 
persons on campus, including our Director of Campus Ministries 
and a teaching faculty member who were concerned about student 
needs, our library was able to provide space for a small food pantry 
with a shelf and freezer for donated foods. Placing this in a low traf-
fic area of the library wing allows students to come and select food 
items without being observed.  This wouldn’t fall into the traditional 
view of “library services.”  But as we’ve discussed, if our goal truly 
is student success, then we have to find ways to address the various 
issues that might interfere with that success.  And again, this includes 
issues of equity, justice, and cultural adaptation.

REFERENCES

Blankenstein, Melissa, Christine Wolff-Eisenberg, and Braddlee. 
2019. “Student Needs Are Academic Needs:  Community College 
Libraries and Academic Support for Student Success.” Ithaka S+R. 
https://doi.org/10.18665/sr.311913.

The Association of Theological Schools. 2021. “Data Visualization 
Tool.” 2021. https://www.ats.edu/data-visualization-tool.

https://doi.org/10.18665/sr.311913

