Bolstering its quest to increase accessibility and opportunity for all students, Ƶ has been awarded a $1.36 million, five-year U.S. Department of Education grant to enhance student support services.
Pacific received the Department’s , which is designed to assist first-generation students, low-income students, and students with disabilities in their academic development with a goal of increasing retention and graduation rates.
The five-year grant will fund Pacific’s Student Support Services Project, which is expected to serve 140 students annually, and will help Pacific’s Academic & Career Advising Center enhance a robust menu of student support services available to all Pacific students.
According to the , Pacific is the first private university in Oregon to receive a TRIO grant.
“Pacific is proud and excited to be the first private university in Oregon to support a TRIO Student Support Services program,” said Sarah Phillips, vice president for enrollment management and student affairs. “This is one more way that we ‘walk the talk’ of being an opportunity university.”
Through the TRIO Student Support Services Project, eligible first-generation and low-income students, and students with disabilities, will be able to access enhanced academic tutoring, academic advising, financial aid assistance, financial literacy, graduate school and career advising, as well as targeted services to support student well-being and career readiness through applied learning experiences.
The program is designed to address the additional challenges to college success faced by those particular student groups. According to the Council for Opportunity in Education (COE), a 2019 Department of Education study showed that students served by a TRIO Student Support Services program were 18% more likely to complete a bachelor’s degree. According to the Oregon TRIO Association, students in TRIO programs realized an 86% retention rate with 77% of participating students graduating with a bachelor’s degree within six years of initial enrollment.
The TRIO grant allows Pacific to expand its mission to develop a diverse and sustainable community dedicated to discovery and excellence in teaching, scholarship and practice. According to university data, over 30% of Pacific undergraduate students are first-generation students (the first in their family to go to college), while just over 32% are eligible for Pell Grants, a measure of financial need.
In 2025, approximately 870,000 first-generation and low-income students were served by 3,400 TRIO programs nationwide. In Oregon, over 4,800 college students were served by TRIO programs at seven four-year public institutions and nine community colleges in 2023-24.