Governor Hochul Announces SUNY Campuses Awarded Over $9 Million in Federal Funding to Support Student Success

Governor Kathy Hochul today announced the United States Department of Education has awarded four State University of New York campuses over $9 million in Federal funding to support student success toward a college degree. SUNY Oswego, SUNY Erie Community College, and Fulton-Montgomery Community College were awarded Title III Strengthening Institutions Program Grants, and SUNY Westchester Community College a Title V Developing Hispanic-Serving Institutions Program grant.

[b]SUNY Chancellor John B. King, Jr. said, “Higher education plays a vital role in providing diverse educational opportunities for all, from community colleges to four-year institutions. The investment from the Title III and V grants will help build on SUNY Oswego, SUNY Erie, Fulton-Montgomery, and Westchester Community College’s ability to increase accessibility to higher education for students from low-income backgrounds. Congratulations to each of the four institutions receiving these grants as they are a testament to the institutions’ unwavering commitment to ensuring an equitable and diverse educational environment.”

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand said, “SUNY schools provide thousands of students from across New York with a robust higher education and critical opportunities to secure good-paying jobs. This funding from the Department of Education will help provide vital support services to students in pursuit of a college degree. I am proud to see this investment by the Department of Education in SUNY schools and I will continue to fight to ensure all students in New York have the resources they need to be successful.”

Representative Brian Higgins said, “This federal investment in SUNY schools, including more than $2 million for ECC, sets students on a path to opportunity and workforce success. I applaud Governor Hochul for her continued focus on making education accessible to everyone and boosting the economy through a skilled workforce.”

Colleges across the nation go through rigorous review by the U.S. Department of Education to be considered for these highly sought-after grants. The Strengthening Institutions Program grants provide funds to improve and strengthen an institution’s academic quality, institutional management, and fiscal stability. Funds may be used for planning, faculty development, establishing endowment funds, administrative management, and the development and enhancement of academic programs. Other projects include the joint use of instructional facilities, construction, maintenance, and student-service programs designed to improve academic success.

SUNY Oswego

SUNY Oswego will use almost $1.9 million in Title III grant funding for the campus’s “Student Success Equity Project”. The project is designed to further SUNY Oswego’s commitment to engage, retain, and graduate all Oswego students by closing equity gaps in student academic success. In this project, campus will develop and implement evidence-based strategies to build an inclusive community, improve academic achievement, and increase financial accessibility for all students and particularly for first year and underserved students. SUNY Oswego will be targeting student success in the classroom through developing faculty strength in inclusive pedagogies and building an innovative, embedded peer-to-peer tutoring program in entry-level math courses. SUNY Oswego will also be supporting financial accessibility for all students through launching a financial literacy peer mentor program that is responsive to student needs, developing a holistic scholarship strategy that better supports underserved students, and developing a portfolio program for credit for prior learning to shorten the pathway to graduation.

SUNY Oswego President Peter O. Nwosu said, "I am thrilled that we are a recipient of this major grant, which will support our access and opportunity mission and enhance the student experience at our institution. Student success is a collective responsibility at SUNY Oswego, and this grant provides the resources needed to further advance the Oswego Promise of transforming lives and igniting new possibilities.”

SUNY Erie Community College

SUNY Erie plans to utilize the $2.2 million grant funding over five years to improve their “Ability to Start Here and Go Anywhere” program. The project aligns with and will measurably further SUNY Erie’s vision to serve as an innovative learning resource promoting student empowerment, diversity and belonging, and career success. The Title III SIP grant will allow SUNY Erie to execute research-based strategies to increase orientation participation, boost gatekeeper course completion, raise retention rates, and improve graduation outcomes—especially for minority, first-generation, and economically-disadvantaged students. Taken together, these initiatives directly support the college’s efforts to increase graduation rates. SUNY Erie looks forward to executing grant initiatives together with students, faculty, staff, and community partners over the next five years.

SUNY Erie Community College President Adiam Tsegai said, “We are profoundly grateful that through rigorous review, our institution, educators, and learners have been recognized by the Department of Education as dedicated to empowering student success. Our students show incredible dedication and persistence in pursuing their academic goals, overcoming myriad challenges along the way. The Title III and Title V grants will allow us to further enact our mission of helping all students overcome obstacles and transform their lives through education"

Fulton-Montgomery Community College

Fulton-Montgomery Community College plans to use nearly $2.2 million in grant funding to improve student achievement, success, and completion; strengthen data collection and institutional research capacity by “Leveraging the FMCC Difference to Drive an Engaged and Data-Driven Culture”. Fulton-Montgomery has designed a project that will transform the college’s academic programming, institutional management, and fiscal stability. The strategies and activities that serve these goals will help Fulton-Montgomery to achieve self-sufficiency and ensure it remains a critical educational and community resource for the greater Mohawk Valley.

Fulton-Montgomery Community College President Greg Truckenmiller said, "This Title III grant from the US Department of Education will further expand our ability to provide an equitable student experience for all students by providing more comprehensive access, support, and opportunity in both their academic and career pursuits. This Title III grant, along with our current strategic plan, is built on improving academic opportunities and economic development for both Fulton and Montgomery counties"

The Developing Hispanic-Serving Institutions Program provides grants to Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSI) to expand educational opportunities for and improve the attainment of Hispanic students. The grant funding enables HSIs to expand and enhance their academic offerings, program quality, and institutional stability. Institutions must be designated eligible Hispanic Serving Institutions to apply for the Title V program.

SUNY Westchester Community College

SUNY Westchester Community College is the recipient of a Title V Developing Hispanic Serving Institutions grant from the United States Department of Education. The program expands educational opportunities for students through academic offerings, program quality, and institutional stability at colleges and universities designated as Hispanic-Serving Institutions. SUNY Westchester will utilize the $2.9 million in grant funding to expand enrollment in its Viking ROADS program, implement "Welcome, Continue and Complete" workshops and outreach to increase retention, completion, and transfer of Hispanic and low-income students. SUNY Westchester was the first SUNY institution designated as an HSI. Currently, SUNY has eight HSI institutions.

SUNY Westchester Community College President Belinda Miles said, “We are excited to be recipients of this new grant. It builds on a significant body of evidence-based, high impact work already underway on our campus and allows us to significantly expand our Viking ROADS program that has nearly tripled graduation rates for students in the program. The grant also enables us to implement a new retention and completion initiative, as well as provide significant opportunities in professional development for faculty in addressing the needs of our diverse student body.”

About The State University of New York

The State University of New York, which celebrates its 75th anniversary this year, is the largest comprehensive system of higher education in the United States, and more than 95 percent of all New Yorkers live within 30 miles of any one of SUNY’s 64 colleges and universities. Across the system, SUNY has four academic health centers, five hospitals, four medical schools, two dental schools, a law school, the country’s oldest school of maritime, the state’s only college of optometry, and manages one US Department of Energy National Laboratory. In total, SUNY serves about 1.4 million students amongst its entire portfolio of credit- and non-credit-bearing courses and programs, continuing education, and community outreach programs. SUNY oversees nearly a quarter of academic research in New York. Research expenditures system-wide are nearly $1.1 billion in fiscal year 2022, including significant contributions from students and faculty. There are more than three million SUNY alumni worldwide, and one in three New Yorkers with a college degree is a SUNY alum. To learn more about how SUNY creates opportunities, visit www.suny.edu.