CSUS Reaffirms Commitment to Access and Success
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The Connecticut State University System (CSUS) joined 23 public college and university systems nationwide today in reaffirming a commitment to improve access to higher education and degree completion, especially among low-income students and students of color. Those underserved populations are increasingly critical to the nation’s competitiveness and economic vibrancy as America’s, and Connecticut’s, demographics change in the coming years.
The multi-year Access to Success (A2S) initiative, launched in 2007, is designed to increase the number of college-educated Americans and ensure that graduates include far more young people from low-income and minority families. It is a project of the National Association of System Heads (NASH) and The Education Trust.
A baseline report, “Charting a Necessary Path,” was released today underscoring the imperative to take effective steps to address these issues, and offering a series of statistical snapshots that reflect well-known gaps in higher education participation and performance.
The Connecticut State University System, with 36,000 students, is Connecticut’s largest university system, and includes Central Connecticut State University in New Britain, Eastern Connecticut State University in Willimantic, Southern Connecticut State University in New Haven and Western Connecticut State University in Danbury. CSUS highlighted a series of initiatives underway that address findings in the report:
Access
The report found that while low-income and minority students are overrepresented in enrollment at community colleges compared with the overall population of the states in which the participating systems operate, most of those students do not transfer to universities. Earlier this year, CSUS began a Dual Enrollment Program with Connecticut Community Colleges, aimed at easing the transfer process and providing dual advising to students while attending community college. Under the program, students earning an associate’s degree are guaranteed admission to their designated CSUS university. Also this year, the number of students transferring to CSUS universities exceeded or equaled an all-time record at seven of Connecticut’s 12 community colleges.
Success
The report found that compared with the overall student population, low-income and minority students are underrepresented among students who continue higher education through to completing a bachelor’s degree. CSUS has instituted a range of initiatives in recent years - with many already proving successful - specifically aimed at improving student success. These include programs to improve college readiness, strengthen freshmen retention, provide academic support services, identify early warning indicators of academic difficulty, and encourage involvement in campus and community service tied to academic programs.
Access & Success
The report found that graduates of the participating systems do not reflect the diversity of the respective states high school graduates. CSUS initiatives to encourage more students, especially students of color and low-income students, to take the steps necessary to prepare for college while in middle or high school are aimed at improving these measures in Connecticut.
Participation in programs such as KnowHow2GO and College Goal Sunday, as well as specific academic partnerships between the universities and area students and teachers in communities statewide, are designed to encourage college-going and promote adequate academic preparation.
Efforts are also being made to increase the number of college-ready minority students who choose to pursue post-secondary education; those who do not often cite economic factors or a longstanding belief that college is not within reach.
“This initiative underscores the critical nature of ongoing efforts by the Connecticut State University System to ensure that our universities are affordable and accessible, providing students in our state with the academic resources and support services necessary to succeed and excel,” said Karl J. Krapek, chairman of the CSUS Board of Trustees.
“We are proud of our efforts thus far, and we are committed to doing even more to support all students in need of assistance. While diminished resources make the challenges more daunting, current fiscal realities do not lessen our resolve. We have a very real opportunity to influence individual lives and the future of our state and nation, and we intend to do so. My message to young people is this: your situation need not be your destination,” said CSUS Chancellor David G. Carter.
Carter noted that progress is already being made at the four CSUS institutions:
- There are over one thousand (1,033) more undergraduate students of color enrolled in the fall of 2009, an increase of 23 percent since fall 2000.
- In each of the past two years, the retention rate among African-American students exceeded 80 percent, compared with 63 percent in the fall of 2002.
- The gap in retention rates has dropped from 7 percent to 1 percent over the past five years, comparing white and minority students who began as full time freshmen.
- The gap in the six-year graduation rate between white students and Latino students has been reduced by more than 10 percentage points, from 17 percent for 1998 graduates to 6 percent for 2009 graduates.
- The six-year graduation rate has increased in recent years for both African-American students (up 6 percent since 2002) and Latino students (up 16 percent since 2004).
Recognizing that Connecticut has one of the largest achievement gaps in K-12 academic performance in the nation, the CSUS universities have been establishing working partnerships with high schools and middle schools in the state and participating in statewide initiatives aimed at improving college readiness, reducing the need for remedial coursework, and encouraging K-12 students to realize that a college education can be within their reach.
Earlier this year for example, Eastern Connecticut State University initiated a program specifically aimed at middle school students, hosting nearly 1,200 students at a day-long college readiness program. Western Connecticut State University’s Bridges program with Danbury and Bethel High Schools has dramatically reduced the number of students requiring remedial classes. Revisions to so-called “first-year experience” programs at the universities have also been effective, increasing the retention rate at Southern to the highest level in 18 years. And each summer, Central’s Educational Opportunity Program (EOP) offers a five-week summer college-preparation program designed for students who have the potential and the desire to do college-level work but do not meet CCSU’s regular admissions standards.
Public university systems participating in the Access to Success initiative comprise 378 college and university campuses in urban, suburban and rural settings, enrolling more than three million students. Collectively, the 24 systems educate almost 40 percent of undergraduates attending public four-year colleges and universities nationwide.
“The disparities that still exist at these public institutions are only part of the story. Similar, and often much greater, gaps exist at public and private universities across the country. While the A2S participants have jointly committed to take concrete steps to respond to these challenges, complementary efforts must extend to colleges and universities of every stripe across all 50 states. Therein lies America’s best chance to respond to global economic challenges and the rising competition - in education and employment - from nations around the world,” Carter said.
The A2S data included transfer and part-time students, usually not counted in publically reported performance measures such as graduation rates, thus providing a more realistic glimpse of the student population. The participating systems vary tremendously, however, making system-to-system comparisons unrealistic. Some systems, for example, include community colleges while others do not. Nonetheless, the bottom line of the findings is clear: far too few low-income and minority students are enrolling in college, and even fewer make it all the way to commencement.
Carter noted that New England 2020, a report issued in 2006, predicted that by 2020 nearly half of the 25-to-29 year-olds will be minorities and that the percentage of minorities in Connecticut’s working age population is expected to increase from 17 percent in 1990 to nearly 28 percent in 2020. In addition, state Department of Labor statistics show that between 2002 and 2012, more than half of the new jobs statewide will require significant post-secondary education or a higher education degree.
Ninety-three percent of CSUS students come from Connecticut and 86 percent of graduates remain in the state; 49 percent of CSUS students are first-generation college students. Full-time undergraduate and graduate enrollment reached all-time record levels this year.
Nationally, Access to Success is supported in part by grants from Lumina Foundation for Education and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
