Fresno State’s Foundation is one of seven national winners of grants totaling $41.3 million from the U.S. Department of Education to boost retention and graduation rates for underserved students.

The grants were announced Wednesday morning.

The Fresno State Foundation’s grant is $7,959,963 and will be used to develop an “enhanced advising project” to improve retention and completion rates.

Fresno State officials did not immediately comment Wednesday morning.

Related Story: Fresno State Prof’s Research Links Voting to Property Values

The foundation is the only grant awardee in California. Of the seven grants awarded, two are in New York, two in Texas, one in Massachusetts, and one in Oregon. The Fresno State Foundation grant is the second-largest of the seven.

According to the Education Department, three of the grant awardees are in the early phases and the other four are in the mid-phase to expansion phase of their projects, based on research evaluating their effectiveness in improving student outcomes.

The grants are being provided under the Postsecondary Student Success Grant program, which aims to improve college student outcomes including keeping students in college and on track to graduate, and to evaluate programs that are successful.

Improving Graduation Rates

Only 62% of students graduate within six years nationally, including fewer than half of Black students, according to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, the Education Department said. But the national rate has grown by 7 percentage points over the past 10 years, signaling that new approaches are helping hundreds of thousands more students earn their degrees, the department said.

“Across the country, colleges and universities are rejecting the old idea that weeding out students was a sign of quality, and instead they are taking responsibility for all of their students’ success,” U.S. Under Secretary of Education James Kvaal said in a news release. “These awards will not only help find new ways to help students graduate; they will help change expectations.”

Related Story: Fresno State Alum Wins Prestigious Fellowship and Is Headed to Med School

The grant awardees will be required to submit an independent evaluation of the effectiveness of their project. The program targets funds to the most under-resourced institutions by focusing on Title III and V institutions, or nonprofits or states that partner with such institutions.

Fresno State’s designation as a minority-service institution under Titles III and V of the Higher Education Act of 1965 was approved by the Education Department in 2018. Fresno State’s enrollment in the fall of 2023 was 59% Hispanic, 12% Asian, 16% white, and 3% Black.