October 29 | Volume 40 No. 31

Westsidestory Newspaper

CSU Symposium Highlights System's Progress and Priorities Toward Advancing Student Success Two-day event reveals new gains in graduation rates, delves into new Student Success Framework and how the CSU is preparing students for an AI-driven world

CSU Vice Chancellor of Strategic Enrollment Management and Student Success Dilcie Perez speak to the approximately 300 students, faculty, staff, system administrators and education partners who attended the CSU Student Success Symposium.

The California State University (CSU) con tinues to raise persistence and graduation rates as it prepares students for an AI-driven workplace and adopts the new Student Success Framework, central to which is the CSU Promise to students that they will graduate with an opportunity for a job in their field of study or a clear path to graduate school. The latest data show that more first-time stu dents are graduating in four years, with the rate increasing 2.3 percentage points in the last year to 39.6%. The transfer student two-year graduation rate saw gains as well, up nearly 1 percentage point to 46.6%. Further, more students are staying on track, with 70.3% remaining enrolled or having graduated after three years. The graduation gains were shared at the Student Success Symposium, "The CSU Promise in Action: Powered by Purpose. Driven by Opportunity," that took place Oct. 22 and 23 in San Jose. Emceed by CSU Student Trustee Carson Fajardo and attended by more than 300 student leaders, faculty, staff, presidents, sys tem administrators and education partners, the symposium outlined the CSU’s commitment to expand career preparation opportunities and address the impact of AI on higher education. The CSU announced its Student Success Framework last year following the culmination of Graduation Initiative 2025, the CSU’s decade-long effort to increase graduation rates and shorten the time it takes students to complete their studies. The CSU’s new framework expands how it defines and measures student success beyond retention and graduation to include affordability, experiential learning, ca reer and graduate school placement, earnings and socioeconomic mobility. "For the last decade, we have rightly asked how we help more students complete a degree," said Dilcie Perez, the CSU’s vice chan cellor for Strategic Enrollment Management and Student Success. "In this next era, we have to ask a larger question: what are our students graduating into?" The symposium’s first day focused on career readiness and the workforce, with speakers and attendees in break-out sessions examining what students need to know, what experiences help them translate learning into opportunity, and how relationships, internships, professional networks and career-connected learning can help turn a degree into a path forward.

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