Fresno State received $75,000 in funding from the Education Credit Management Corporation Foundation to help address student retention on campus. To be eligible for the grant, teams of at least three campuses were encouraged to develop proposals to address persistence and graduation gaps among low-income, first-generation college students and students of color.

The proposal, titled, “Improving Data and Communication to Increase Student Retention,” was led by Fresno State and CSU Channel Islands in collaboration with CSU Northridge and Portland State University to reduce a common challenge — high first-year dropout rates that hover around 20 percent.

The California State University institutions and their Oregon-based partner institution will build datasets to identify risk factors for dropping out, and to establish communications protocols to reach at-risk students. Dr. Bernadette Muscat, associate dean for the College of Social Sciences at Fresno State, is leading the grant and will be working directly with Vice Provost Dr. Dennis Nef and Dr. Malisa Lee.