Student Support Services Awarded $2 Million in Federal Funding to Help Students Succeed

The U.S. Department of Education has announced that Syracuse University will receive a federal Student Support Services (SSS) grant of $2,059,465 over five years to help more students succeed in and graduate from college. SSS at Syracuse University is one of the longest running SSS programs in the country and has been in existence since 1979.

SSS students visited with Chancellor Kent Syverud and Dr. Ruth Chen at the Chancellor’s House in 2019.

SSS helps college students who are low income, first generation (those whose parents do not have a four-year college degree) and students with disabilities. The array of services the grant will provide are comprehensive and will include academic tutoring, financial aid advice, career and college mentoring, help in choosing courses and other forms of assistance. Such services enhance academic success and make it more likely that students will graduate with the lowest possible debt. Many SSS alumni have gone on to great success, among them Emmy, Tony and Academy-Award winning actress Viola Davis, U.S. Rep. Gwendolyn Moore of Wisconsin’s 4th District, and Franklin Chang-Diaz, the first Hispanic astronaut.

SSS student Manny Zapata ’18 speaks at the Center for Academic Achievement and Student Development Baccalaureate ceremony in 2018.

SSS began in 1968 and is one of the eight federal “TRIO” programs authorized by the Higher Education Act to help college students succeed in higher education. It recognizes that students whose parents do not have a college degree have more difficulties navigating the complexity of decisions that college requires for success; bolsters students from low-income families who have not had the academic opportunities that their college peers have had, and helps students with disabilities remove obstacles preventing them from thriving academically.

“Syracuse University’s 40-year plus commitment to Student Support Services is representative of its core values,” says Syracuse University SSS Director Craig Tucker. “This funding is an important recognition of the University’s ongoing commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion, and to the work the University does to ensure that first-generation students from underserved backgrounds have access to quality higher education and a successful college experience.”

Maureen Hoyler, president of the nonprofit Council for Opportunity in Education (COE) in Washington, D.C., says “The COVID-19 pandemic has worsened the systemic inequality and financial hardship which keep promising students from succeeding in college. Student Support Services is needed now more than ever.”  COE is dedicated to furthering the expansion of college opportunities for low-income, first-generation students, and students with disabilities.

For more than 50 years, the SSS program has made important contributions to individuals and society as a whole by providing a broad range of services to help students succeed. This vital program can and does make all the difference.