Graduation Initiative 2025

In 2015, the California State University launched Graduation Initiative 2025, a systemwide effort to increase graduation rates, eliminate equity gaps in degree completion, and meet California's growing workforce needs. For a decade, Chico State organized its student success work around the goals and accountability structures of this initiative.

What We Accomplished

Over ten years, Chico State has made measurable progress in key areas. Transfer student two-year graduation rates improved significantly, exceeding the CSU target of 43% and reaching 47% by 2025. The initiative accelerated a lasting cultural shift toward data-informed student success practice: colleges and departments now routinely track retention and equity data, and disaggregated outcomes have become a standard tool for academic planning and advising.

The Advancing Equity Project (2021–2023), launched within the initiative's final years, brought Action and Inquiry Teams of faculty and staff together around targeted strategies for equitable student success. Several AEP-initiated efforts have since been institutionalized as permanent university programs.

Equity gaps in graduation rates narrowed in some areas but remain a persistent challenge — particularly for first-generation, low-income, and historically underserved students. Chico State is committed to carrying this work forward.

What Continues

The following programs were created and launched by the Graduation Initiative Advisory Team and are now permanent expressions of Chico State’s commitment to student success.

Critical Success Courses
A course redesign program is distinctive for requiring all faculty who teach a participating course to adopt shared learning strategies and assessment practices, coordinated by a funded Course Coordinator. Unlike typical redesign efforts that engage only select instructors, this model ensures consistent, equity-minded practice across every section — and has reduced unsuccessful grades by 50% or more in participating courses.

College Equity and Retention Leads 
Faculty leads in each college who coordinate retention efforts and sustain attention to disaggregated student outcomes, supporting department-specific data analysis, programming to foster belonging and engagement, and faculty professional development focused on equitable student success.

HELP Team
Launched in 2023, the HELP Team connects students experiencing difficulty to support services across more than 40 campus departments, providing coordinated referrals and follow-through — no more bouncing from office to office.