Dear Higher Education: Letters from the Social Justice Mountain

You Locked Them Out and Call it Policy: Are They Accepted or Not?

Keisha Hook

Abstract

This letter examines the policy of restricting student access to learning management systems, like Canvas, due to unpaid tuition balances and examines its disproportionate impact on students of color, first-generation students, and those experiencing financial hardships at predominantly white institutions (PWIs). The letter explores how financial holds function not merely as administrative procedures, but as mechanisms of structural exclusion that interrupt students’ academic participation, sense of belonging, and continuity in community. When students are locked out of course platforms, they are effectively removed from the educational process. The letter also highlights the invisible and emotional labor required of Black women faculty, who are often positioned as cultural translators, advocates, and emotional anchors for students navigating institutional barriers, while simultaneously lacking the authority to alter the policies that produce harm. It calls on higher education institutions to critically examine how financial policies shape access, belonging, and equity, and to reimagine systems that support, rather than suspend, student participation.