CSU Marks 10 Years of Advancing Student Basic Needs Support

​​For 10 years, the CSU's Basic Needs Initiative has helped transform how campuses support student well-being. At the 2026 CSU Basic Needs Convening, more than 120 faculty, staff and students gathered at the Chancellor's Office July 9-10 to reflect on a decade of progress, exchange ideas and help shape the initiative's next chapter.

Critical to student success at the CSU, the Basic Needs Initiative ensures the university provides holistic support to students both inside and outside the classroom, by focusing on housing, food security, mental health and more. And, through CSU Forward, the new strategic plan, the CSU has committed to continued prioritization of student engagement and well-being.

Rashida Crutchfield—a professor in the School of Social Work at Cal State Long Beach and executive director of the Center for Equitable Higher Education—reflected on the origins of the Basic Needs Initiative at the convening. During a CSU Board of Trustees meeting in 2015, testimonial from a CSULB student who was struggling to meet his basic needs resonated with then Chancellor Timothy White, who revealed that he, too, had experienced food insecurity as a college student.

Under White's leadership, the CSU launched Graduation Initiative 2025 in 2015, which included six foundational pillars, one of which was Student Engagement and Well-Being. That same year, the CSU commissioned a three-phase study​ to better understand how campuses were meeting the needs of displaced and food-insecure students, becoming a national frontrunner in quantifying the scope of the issue and addressing it systemically across all its campuses.

Led by Crutchfield, Phase 1 of the study, "Serving Displaced and Food Insecure Students in the CSU,"​ was released in 2016. It examined how students, faculty, staff and administrators understood and experienced food and housing insecurity across the CSU and inventoried the system's existing support programs. Over the next several years, subsequent phases expanded on those findings, culminating in the release of the study's final phase, "​Comprehensive Study of College Student Basic Needs," in 2019. Together, the reports provided a foundation for understanding student basic needs and informed systemwide action. ​

Following the study's early findings, the CSU launched a comprehensive Basic Needs Initiative to address its recommendations. Campuses moved quickly, and within just 18 months of the initiative's launch, all campuses had a food pantry or food distribution system—up from 11 at the time of the survey.

Over the past decade, CSU practitioners, researchers, campus leaders and community partners have transformed isolated responses into one of the nation's most comprehensive, systemwide Basic Needs infrastructures. Leveraging the CSU's "systemness," these individuals created a community of practice to learn from one another and scale successful support strategies.

Today, all 22 CSU campuses have a food pantry or food distribution program, and those programs serve more than 77,000 students annually while referring more than 5,000 students to housing resources. All campuses also offer on-site CalFresh application assistance as well as emergency grants or funds, and nearly all ​provide on- or off-campus emergency housing. Additionally, 18 CSU campuses participate in the Rapid Rehousing & Housing Security Program (RRHHSP) as of the 2023-24 academic year.

The CSU's focus on student basic needs helped elevate the issue statewide, and advocacy efforts have helped secure state support for campuses and students. Following early investments such as SB 85 in 2017, the state continued to expand its commitment to student basic needs. In 2021, the CSU received $15 million in ongoing funding for basic needs programs. That investment increased by $10 million in 2022, bringing total ongoing support to $25 million, and in 2023 funding grew to $26.3 million annually to permanently sustain and expand the Basic Needs Initiative.

The first decade of the Basic Needs Initiative demonstrated that meeting students' basic needs is essential to student success, which is why it is embedded in each of the CSU's new guiding plans: the Strategic Plan, the Student Success Framework​ and the Strategic Enrollment Management Framework expected to be released in fall 2026.

"The next decade calls on us to go beyond the basics of Basic Needs," said Dilcie Perez, vice chancellor for Strategic Enrollment Management and Student Success. "Rather than focusing only on responding to individual student crises or service delivery, we must build systems, partnerships, affordability strategies and data-informed practices that address root causes, strengthen belonging, prevent crises before they occur, and create the conditions that allow every student to persist, graduate and thrive."

Affordability is key, Perez added, and while CSU tuition remains among the lowest in the nation, the CSU is committed to addressing the total cost of college, including housing, learning materials, transportation and other expenses.​​​​

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Learn more about the CSU’s Basic​ Needs Initiative.​