Model 1

A Question of Institutional Reach and Expanded Access:
Serving a Small Population in a Large, Mostly Rural Region

Campus Context and Challenge: Chico is a mid-size CSU campus with a high percentage of residential students. This campus is the only public university in this rural service region, which encompasses 20% of California’s land mass (33,000 square miles) but only 2% of the state’s population, with a range of diverse educational needs. The challenge facing this campus was to provide educational access for those who cannot travel to or reside on campus, while using its state-funded resources to ensure both the quality and scope of the programs and services offered.

The Successful Stretch Strategy: CSU Chico has combined its state-funded capabilities and its self-support capabilities to expand both its educational reach and the breadth of its educational response. Chico’s off-campus center, which offers state-funded courses to nearly 80 students in two degree programs, including graduate degrees, is managed by the campus’s self-support unit. This regional center also hosts degree programs in partnership with a local community college. It thus increases opportunities and access while leveraging the self-support unit’s versatile and administrative capabilities to expand cross-institutional collaboration. In addition, Chico uses its self-support unit to provide and coordinate student support services to more than 270 state-supported students enrolled in five fully online degree or degree-completion programs each semester. Enrollments per semester total over 800.