The National Association of Higher Education Systems (NASH) selected nine California State University programs to receive Catalyst Fund awards to expand initiatives aimed at making college more affordable and increasing access to higher education. The Chancellor's Office provided matching funds to selected initiatives.
For this round of funding, NASH sought out programs and initiatives at institutions within the CSU, University of California and California Community Colleges systems that demonstrated innovative practices with potential for replication and scale. The Catalyst Fund focuses on discovering innovative ideas to share with NASH's extensive network of higher education systems nationwide, helping advance all students.
“As the nation's largest and most diverse public four-year university system, providing equitable access to a high-quality education is central to the California State University's mission,"
said CSU Chancellor Mildred García. “Through our engagement with NASH and collaboration with our California public higher education partners, we are building scalable models to advance student success that exemplify our nation's fundamental value of opportunity for all."
The awarded CSU programs and initiatives are aimed not only at supporting students' basic needs and teaching them financial literacy as ways to curtail the total cost of college, but they also encourage using data-informed decision making to reduce time-to-degree, saving students both time and money.
In addition to honoring the CSU with multiple Catalyst Fund awards,
NASH elected Chancellor García to its Board of Directors in December 2024, recognizing the university's national leadership in higher education.
Read about these
promising CSU practices centered on affordability that received Catalyst Fund awards in 2024.
CSU Channel Islands
CSUCI Initiative for Mapping Academic Success (CIMAS)
CSU Channel Islands students visit the Santa Rosa Island Research Station as part of CSUCI Initiative for Mapping Academic Success (CIMAS) activities. (Photo courtesy CSUCI)
The CSU Channel Islands Initiative for Mapping Academic Success (CIMAS) is a 15-week intervention program designed to increase retention and progress toward graduation, specifically for Latinx and Pell-eligible students. CIMAS recruits students who experienced negative course outcomes in the prior semester (non-passing or incomplete grades, course drops or term withdrawals) and places them in a cohort that meets weekly.
Alongside their peers, students learn skills and strategies like identifying and overcoming academic challenges, strengthening foundational study skills and time management, and identifying, navigating and leveraging campus resources.
Originally started for sociology students in 2017 and paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, CIMAS was relaunched for students from all disciplines in 2022 to address learning loss and decreased engagement caused by the pandemic. The percentage of
spring 2022 CIMAS participants who returned to CSUCI for the fall 2022 semester was nearly 13 points higher than that of all other students.
“The program's success is built on the combination of explicitly teaching learning skills and bringing together small communities of students who support each other as they try new strategies and discuss the challenges they are facing," said
CSUCI Sociology Lecturer Leslie Abell, CIMAS faculty lead.
In addition to receiving a Catalyst Fund award from NASH in 2024, CIMAS has earned national recognition from
Excelencia in Education as a “Program to Watch" in 2020 and 2023.
Chico State
Financial Wellness Clinic (FWC)
Chico State students participate in a workshop hosted by the Financial Wellness Clinic. (Photo courtesy Chico State/Jason Halley)
Chico State's
Financial Wellness Clinic (FWC) offers free and holistic financial planning sessions to student clients. In some cases, the support has helped students who are debating dropping out of school or filing for bankruptcy learn to manage their budgets and graduate on time.
Clinic staff hold daily drop-in hours and meet with students to listen to their concerns, help prepare a budget, offer counsel on debt and credit issues, and provide necessary steps for students to implement corrective actions.
The FWC is different from some other financial literacy interventions in that it partners with Chico State's Basic Needs Center to recruit students. Referred students are required to create a budget plan with FWC staff before they can receive financial assistance from Basic Needs, encouraging long-term financial stability.
The clinic also has a Certified Financial Planner® on staff to answer any financial planning questions students may have, including tax information, insurance and investment questions, as well as five student “para-planners" who are gaining real-world professional experience.
To date, the FWC has served more than 600 Chico State students and has addressed concerns from high debt levels to tax burdens, credit repair, identity theft and much more.
San Diego State
SDSU Basic Needs Kits
San Diego State students can choose from a variety of essential items provided in a free monthly Basic Needs Kit. (Photo courtesy SDSU)
San Diego State received a Catalyst Fund award in 2024 to expand its
Basic Needs Kit program. Once per month, students can request a personalized kit via a Google Form to receive essential items such as soap, toilet paper, toothpaste, laundry detergent, scantrons, notebooks, menstrual products and more. Pregnant and parenting students may also request diapers and wipes.
Basic Needs Kits provide short-term support while SDSU Basic Needs staff work to connect students to long-term solutions like CalFresh, Medi-Cal and CalWORKs benefits, along with financial education, financial aid and scholarships, and employment.
During the 2023-24 academic year, SDSU provided more than 2,200 students with Basic Needs Kits and it plans to use the award money from NASH to reach more students across the university.
Critical to student success, the CSU's Basic Needs Initiative takes a holistic look at students' well-being both inside and outside the classroom, from housing and food security to mental health, and has supported programs like SDSU's Basic Needs Kits.
Cal Poly Humboldt
Individualized Degree Plan (IDP)
Cal Poly Humboldt's
Individualized Degree Plan (IDP) provides students with the opportunity and support to customize a major consisting of coursework from multiple disciplines and institutions and offers flexibility in modality—be it in-person, online or hybrid.
By expanding access, reducing structural barriers and fostering interdisciplinary learning, the IDP not only removes financial and opportunity costs but also enables students to tailor their academic pursuits to their interests and goals, as well as their personal and professional commitments.
The NASH Catalyst award Cal Poly Humboldt received in 2024 will support the Far North Satellite Education and Employment Development (SEED) project, an initiative of the university's IDP. Through partnerships with community colleges, including College of the Redwoods and Shasta College, the project will enable students with an associate's degree to utilize their local community college as a resource while pursuing their bachelor's degree online through the IDP.
“The funding will be instrumental in Cal Poly Humboldt's continued work to expand educational access in the region and beyond by deploying flexible and innovative approaches to teaching and learning that meet students where they are,"
said IDP Director Rebecca Robertson.
Sonoma State
Seawolves F1rst: Jump Start Program & First-Generation Early Engagement Program
Sonoma State's First-Generation Early Engagement Program provides an early intervention system coupled with programming and support. (Photo courtesy SSU)
Sonoma State received two NASH Catalyst Fund awards in 2024 for programs aimed at supporting students early in their academic careers.
The
Seawolves F1rst: Jump Start Program helps incoming first-time first-year students smoothly transition from high school to college and successfully complete their English and math coursework requirements in their first year. A key goal is to mitigate the need for remedial courses or additional academic support services, saving students time and money.
“Our Jump Start Program provides a blend of interactive workshops, peer mentoring and essential information prior to the start of the semester to help new students hit the ground running,"
said Ricardo Calderon, SSU Coordinator of First- and Second-Year Transition Programs.
SSU's
First-Generation Early Engagement Program targets first-generation students—approximately 47% of the total student population—who are in danger of not passing a critical course. The program was part of an early engagement intervention SSU piloted in fall 2023 comprised of an early alert system coupled with first-generation specific programming and support.
The results were impressive—97% of the 56 students who participated in the pilot ended the semester in good academic standing and returned for the spring 2024 semester.
“This project aims to increase a sense of belonging while building a system of support for first-generation students, in order to support retention and decrease time to degree for the university's substantial first-generation student population,"
said Gerald Jones, SSU Vice President for Student Affairs.
In addition to programming and support for students, First-Generation Early Engagement Program efforts include a faculty learning community focused on those teaching courses with the highest non-passing grade rates and equity gaps in achievement.
Cal Poly Pomona
Male Success Initiatives (MSI)
Members of Cal Poly Pomona's Male Success Initiatives (MSI) program participate in a transfer success event on campus. (Photo courtesy CPP/Tom Zasadzinski)
Through holistic and culturally responsive programming, cross-campus networks and student support services, Cal Poly Pomona's
Male Success Initiatives (MSI) program seeks to enhance retention and graduation rates for men of color at CPP. The program is geared toward male students from historically underrepresented backgrounds as these individuals tend to enroll in and graduate from college at lower rates than their peers.
The program prepares scholars for the rigors of collegiate life using a cohort model that instills a sense of belonging, connects students with valuable campus resources and faculty/staff networks, and empowers them to be leaders in their field of study and in their communities.
MSI's collaborative model and involvement in statewide initiatives position it as a scalable and replicable intervention beyond the CSU system, offering a blueprint for other institutions seeking to address similar challenges and achieve equitable outcomes for men of color in academia.
Several other CSUs host similar programs that support male students of color, including
CSU Dominguez Hills and
Cal State Fullerton.
Cal State San Bernardino
ENGAGE (Early Notification & Guidance for Academic Excellence)
Cal State San Bernardino has leveraged data gained from the university's learning management system, Canvas, to develop a tool for academic advisors to identify at-risk students and provide timely support. Early Notification & Guidance for Academic Excellence (ENGAGE) uses Canvas data to create a risk profile for each student, which is reflected in a dashboard that outlines risk indicators as well as available support options for each student.
The efforts have student support, as well. A recent survey of CSUSB undergraduates found that 87% of them indicated they would want an advisor to reach out to them if they were falling behind in any of their classes.
In spring 2024, CSUSB targeted 3,000 at-risk students for an intervention midway through the term, and 38% of them improved from Risk Level 5 to Risk Level 0 within three weeks of outreach. A total of 1,140 students who were at risk of failing their course(s) at mid-point ended up earning a grade of C or better.
CSU San Marcos
Early Academic Intervention
CSU San Marcos has also implemented an
Early Academic Intervention (EAI) system designed to solicit referrals directly from faculty teaching high-enrollment first-year courses—such as the first-year seminar course, the first-year composition course and general education mathematics courses—and connect students to support resources within the first few weeks of their first term.
Over the last two academic years, EAI has proven accurate in identifying struggling students, and students who respond to intervention outreach persist at consistently higher rates than non-responders. With increased funding, EAI is planning to address a significant financial barrier that contributes directly to student academic struggle in the first term: early access to digital textbooks and learning platforms for math courses.
The university held the first-ever CSU Affordability Summit on October 28, 2024. The summit was made possible from the support of the Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund.
Watch the summit recordings, and learn more about the university's efforts to reduce the cost of attending college.