Sul Ross State University

Challenge

Lack of resources and expertise in pursuing and managing large, complex grants, particularly from federal funders, limited SRSU's opportunity to garner funding for addressing student-focused needs.

Results

• Ellucian Grant Services was able to increase capacity to submit multiple awards to support Hispanic student success (3 - Title V DHSI awards; 3 - PPOHA awards; 1 - Title III Part F HSI-STEM award), including the forthcoming launch of SRSU's first two doctoral programs.
• Ellucian Grant Services increased engagement of faculty pursuing funding for research projects from two faculty in 2018 to 20 faculty having served as a PI/PD on at least one research proposal by January 2025.
• Ellucian Grant Services brought expertise to apply for and win the NTIA Connecting Minority Communities Award that was able to provide laptops to students, broadband infrastructure improvements, and classroom technology.

FAR FROM ORDINARY: How Sul Ross State University is achieving success through grants

Colleges and universities are under increasing pressure to adapt services and programs as the students and communities they serve evolve. This is perhaps truer now than ever, as higher education institutions, who have collectively experienced significant enrollment declines since 2010, brace for the looming, long-predicted demographic cliff in which the number of 18-year-olds will steadily decline over the next two decades.

Implementing the scale of change required to meet these challenges requires institutions to focus time, expertise, and resources on strategies proven to keep students engaged and successful. Unfortunately, the financial resources necessary to plan and enact these strategies can be in short supply, forcing institutions to either scale back their ambitions or find alternative funding sources outside the operational budget.

Sul Ross State University (Sul Ross), a Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI) with campuses in Alpine, Del Rio, Eagle Pass, and Uvalde, has partnered with Ellucian Grants Services (EGS) since October 2018 to ensure that external grant funding is a significant portion of that formula. During this time, Sul Ross and EGS partnered to win more than $43.5 million in grant funding, including more than $33.6 million from the U.S. Department of Education (ED) alone. Among these, perhaps the most impactful have been seven awards from ED's Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI) Division, totaling more than $26.7 million.

The ED HSI Division "provides grant funding to institutions of higher education to assist with strengthening institutional programs, facilities, and services to expand the educational opportunities for Hispanic Americans and other underrepresented populations." Sul Ross receives funding from three of the grant programs administered by the HSI Division: Developing Hispanic-Serving Institutions (DHSI) Program (Title V, Part A); Promoting Postbaccalaureate Opportunities for Hispanic Americans (PPOHA) Program (Title V, Part B); and Hispanic-Serving Institutions Science, Technology, Engineering, or Mathematics and Articulation (HSI STEM) Program (Title III, Part F). For all three of the programs, institutions of higher education must meet specific eligibility requirements.

• The DHSI Program provides grants to assist HSIs in expanding educational opportunities for Hispanic students and enhancing their academic offerings, program quality, and institutional stability. Funds may be used for activities such as scientific equipment, instructional facility renovations, faculty development, educational materials, tutoring, counseling programs, and student support services.
• The PPOHA Program provides grants to expand and enhance postbaccalaureate educational opportunities and improve academic attainment for low-income and Hispanic students.
• The HSI STEM Program aims to increase the number of Hispanic and low-income students attaining STEM degrees and develop model transfer agreements between two-year and four-year institutions. Funds may be used to improve STEM curriculum, faculty development, student services, outreach activities, and STEM facilities and equipment.

Sul Ross's collaboration with Ellucian Grants Services began during a period of rapidly declining enrollments at the institution. By Fall 2019, undergraduate enrollment at Sul Ross-Alpine had fallen nearly 19% since 2016. Fall-to-fall retention rates were more than 10% lower than those of peer institutions, and the six-year graduation rate was just 22%, a full twelve percentage points lower than the average of 34% for comparable institutions. Hands-on learning experiences were limited by dated equipment, and online programs trailed their in-person counterparts in terms of both quality and availability. The Del Rio, Eagle Pass, and Uvalde campuses offered a student experience that lacked the personalized attention and availability of services that students have rightfully come to expect. Graduate programs were offered in silos and often felt disjointed from the overall campus experience. Online programs were frequently taught by faculty with no training in online pedagogy or delivery methodology.

Together, EGS and Sul Ross developed a comprehensive development plan to strategically pursue grant funding to support their institutional strategies for improvement. In October 2020, Sul Ross received a $2.8 million five-year Title V DHSI grant award for their project titled "The Frontier Student Experience" (2020-2025). This project focused on increasing student retention, implementing strategies to improve student orientation, and providing opportunities for engagement with peers, faculty, and staff. Additionally, the project revamped advising on the Alpine campus, ensuring that students had relevant, timely, and accurate information regarding their progress through their academic program and its correlation to potential careers. Finally, this project focused on improving students' writing skills, increasing their chances of success in writing-intensive upper-level courses. The following year, Sul Ross received nearly $5 million to implement its five-year "LoboTrack to STEM Success" (2021-2026) HSI STEM initiative, which further enhanced retention by establishing a supplemental instructor program for some of the most challenging STEM courses at the university. Also in 2021, Sul Ross won a PPOHA grant award "Advancing Graduate Programs en la Frontera" to develop new and graduate programs, revitalize existing graduate programs, and provide critical support services to graduate students.

In 2022, Sul Ross received another five-year DHSI grant award to fund "Creating a Culture of Care", focused specifically on establishing critical student services at its three branch campuses (Del Rio, Eagle Pass, and Uvalde) in the middle Rio Grande Region of West Texas. These campuses, which currently provide only upper-level courses and exclusively serve transfer students, have traditionally lagged behind the Alpine campus in terms of staffing and service availability. Through this project, the institution established an Office of Student Services with a focus on retention and career services specific to students at these campuses. This was a critical step toward realizing a long-term strategic goal, proving the use of institutional planning and grants together to enable regional transformation. That same year, Sul Ross received a second PPOHA grant entitled "Accelerating Access and Opportunity in West Texas" (2022-2027), which focused primarily on the development of online graduate programs and provided faculty with the training and tools necessary to ensure these programs and courses offered the same quality as on-ground programs.

These efforts have contributed to significant improvement across various institutional metrics. As of Fall 2024, undergraduate enrollment has returned to its 2016 level. Students participating in the "Connecting with Students for Success" program (as part of the Frontier Student Experience now in its fifth and final year) are being retained year-to-year at a rate of 86%. Overall, student retention has increased at the institution from 48% in 2019 to over 58% in 2024. Students across programs have access to grant-funded cutting-edge technology that mirrors industry standards, and those enrolled in programs at the Del Rio, Eagle Pass, and Uvalde campuses have access to a full suite of student support, matching the experience of their peers at the Alpine campus.

New Office of Graduate Studies

A new centralized Office of Graduate Studies, established as part of the planning and preparation for the 2021 PPOHA award, serves as a resource for students and faculty and ensures that programs and processes align with institutional standards. Faculty have access to professional development opportunities to build their skills to match the mode of delivery, and forty-six faculty have already completed the Applying the Quality Matters Rubric training to date. The grant funded the creation of a new Director of Online Programs and Distance Education position to oversee this initiative.

New master's programs and certificates in market-relevant disciplines including sports administration, forensic science, environmental studies, health sciences, logistics and supply chain management, and border security and management have been developed to better align with student expectations and meet workforce demands in the region. Additional graduate program development is on the way including Sul Ross's first two doctoral degrees—an Ed.D. in Educational Leadership with a specialization in Rural Borderlands and Linguistically Diverse Communities, expected to be available in 2026; and a collaborative Ph.D. in Range and Wildlife Sciences that is currently under development with Texas Tech University and Texas A&M University-Kingsville.

Seal of Excelencia

Sul Ross State University was certified in October 2024 as a Seal of Excelencia institution by Excelencia in Education for their work intentionally serving and improving the outcomes of their students, 68% of whom are Hispanic. This recognition highlights Sul Ross's commitment to fostering a learning environment where Latino students thrive, as evidenced by significant improvements in student success metrics. These improvements are attributed primarily to these many initiatives that were funded, in whole or in part, by the U.S. Department of Education's Hispanic-Serving Institutions Division.

Conclusion

At Ellucian, we understand that continuous institutional evolution requires significant resources, and we work closely with our partner institutions to find external funding opportunities that can help turn these intentions into realities. Learn more about how Ellucian's Grants Services can empower your institutional leaders to enact their vision through grant funding by requesting a consultation below.