A student retention program is being expanded at colleges in New York State.
Governor Kathy Hochul announced that retention and completion model SUNY ASAP|ACE is being expanded to 34 campuses in Fall 2025. The expansion is expected to serve 7,050 students. It’s being made possible using $12 million in allocated funding from the 2026 State Budget that places SUNY ASAP|ACE on the path to reach 10,000 students by Fall 2026.
Advancing Success in Associate Pathways (ASAP) targets associate students and Advancing Completion through Engagement (ACE) targets baccalaureate students, both providing financial resources and wraparound supports to remove barriers to full-time study, help students gain and maintain academic momentum, and create a connected community among students, all in service of increasing timely degree completion.
ASAP will expand to four more community colleges: Dutchess, Monroe, Onondaga, and Tompkins Cortland. ASAP is already in place at the following community colleges: Cayuga, Clinton, Erie, Finger Lakes, Herkimer, Hudson Valley, Jefferson, Nassau, Orange, Rockland, Schenectady, Suffolk, and Westchester.
ACE will expand to five State-operated campuses: University at Albany, SUNY Cobleskill, SUNY Delhi, SUNY Old Westbury, and SUNY Oneonta. ACE is currently available at the following state-operated campuses: University at Buffalo, Buffalo State, Canton, Farmingdale, Fredonia, Morrisville, New Paltz, Oswego, Plattsburgh, SUNY Polytechnic Institute, Potsdam, and Purchase College.
Preliminary outcomes data across current ASAP|ACE partner campuses demonstrate participating students have higher credit completion and persistence rates than similar non-ASAP|ACE students. ASAP students pursuing associate degrees have a 20 percent higher credit completion rate than non-ASAP students (73 percent versus 61 percent). ASAP students also have a higher spring-fall persistence rate: 80 percent for ASAP versus 72 percent for non-ASAP students. Additionally, ACE students pursuing bachelor’s degrees at a SUNY State operated campuses have a nine percent higher credit completion rate than similar non-ACE students (89 percent versus 82 percent). ACE students also have higher spring-fall persistence rates: 88 percent for ACE versus 85 percent for non-ACE students.
SUNY’s first campus to replicate the completion model is Westchester Community College, and results from independent research show significant increases from enrollment to completion. Three years since SUNY WCC launched Viking Resources for Obtaining Associate Degrees and Success (Viking ROADS), MDRC’s research showed participants were 11.8 percentage points more likely to complete a degree than students in the control group (35.5 percent versus 23.7 percent). These results are even more impressive given that the study was conducted during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. These graduation improvements are in line with results from earlier evaluations of CUNY ASAP (18 percentage point impact) and the replication of ASAP in Ohio (15 percentage points). Taken together, these effects on college completion are the largest of any postsecondary program that has been evaluated by MDRC.
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