Meeting college students’ basic needs is the goal of a new set of student success initiatives that address students’ urgent food, housing, or financial hardships in an effort to help them remain and succeed in college. Focusing on one California public university, we describe one such basic needs program, identifying the students who participate, their hardships and services received, and their retention over time. Students presented with issues in four main areas: food insecurity, mental health, multiple severe hardships, and need for one-time supports. In general, participants were retained at lower rates than the campus average, which is to be expected given their severe hardships. However, those who enrolled in the Supplementation Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) were retained at higher rates, on par with or higher than university-wide retention. California has amended SNAP regulations to waive work requirements for low-income students, making it easier for college students to qualify.

满足大学生的基本需求是一系列新的学生成功计划的目标，这些计划解决学生的紧急食物，住房或经济困难，以帮助他们保持并在大学中取得成功。我们以一所加州公立大学为重点，描述了一种这样的基本需求计划，确定了参与的学生，他们的艰辛和所获得的服务以及他们随着时间的保留。学生在四个主要方面提出了问题：粮食不安全，心理健康，多重严重困难以及需要一次性支持。通常，参与者的录取率低于校园平均水平，鉴于他们的艰辛生活，这是可以预期的。但是，那些参加补充营养援助计划（SNAP）的人的保留率更高，与大学范围内的保留率相同或更高。加利福尼亚州已修订了SNAP法规，以免除低收入学生的工作要求，从而使大学生更容易获得资格。