Access to Success is a major, multi-year initiative designed to increase the number of college-educated Americans and ensure that graduates include far more young people from low-income and minority families.

The initiative’s 20 participating public higher education systems, including the Connecticut State University System, educate more than two million undergraduates nationwide and represent more than one-third of the low-income and minority students attending four-year public colleges and universities in the U.S. 

The systems agreed to publicly pursue aggressive goals aimed at improving overall student outcomes by the year 2015. The objectives include reducing by half the gaps in access and success that separate low-income and minority students from others, while improving overall student success rates.

The participating higher education systems, with support from the National Association of System Heads (NASH) and The Education Trust, will publicly report their progress toward reaching their goals annually.  The system leaders have chosen several areas for immediate attention, including:

• Increasing student success in remedial courses and other large-enrollment, introductory courses;
• Managing costs and investing in student success;
• Working more closely with K-12 counterparts to improve preparation among entering students; and,
• Maximizing financial aid for low-income students.

Links:

Access to Success brochure (PDF)

CSUS to participate in Access to Success National Initiative

(News Release)

National Statistics on Access and Success (Powerpoint)

Connecticut State University System

“Changing demographics are upon us, and it is incumbent upon us to meet these challenges if we are to meet the economic challenges we face as a state and nation,” said CSUS Chancellor David G. Carter.

Across the Connecticut State University System - Central, Eastern, Southern and Western Connecticut State Universities - 49 percent of students are first-generation college students. 

Full-time enrollment of minority students at the CSUS has grown from 2,802 students in the fall of 1996 to 4,256 students in the fall of 2007, an increase of nearly 52 percent. 

Ninety-three percent of CSUS students come from Connecticut and 86 percent of graduates remain in the state.

With more than 35,000 students, CSUS is Connecticut’s largest university system.

The 20 participating college and university systems in the

Access to Success initiative are:

California State University System
Connecticut State University System
State University System of Florida
University of Hawaii System
Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education
University of Louisiana System
Southern University and A&M College System
University of Maine System
University System of Maryland
Minnesota State Colleges and Universities
Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning
University of Missouri System
Montana University System
City University of New York
State University of New York

University of North Carolina
University of Puerto Rico System
Rhode Island Board of Governors for Higher Education
South Dakota Board of Regents
Vermont State Colleges