When 39 percent of students in Pennsylvania’s two-year programs and 26 percent in four-year programs experience food insecurity, the question of student success stops being purely academic. A degree pursued on an empty stomach, from an unstable apartment, or without reliable childcare is a degree at risk. Pennsylvania has built a deliberate answer to that reality: PA EmpowerU, a statewide, cross-agency initiative that treats basic needs as completion infrastructure.
Keystones of Student Success
Launched under the Shapiro-Davis administration and rebranded last year from its earlier name, PA MASLOW, the initiative is organized around eight “keystones” that span the full spectrum of non-academic supports, from digital equity and food security to mental health, financial wellness, and unique obstacles facing adult and parenting students. This effort is a remarkable model of coordination across stakeholders; it centralizes grant programs for institutions looking to strengthen infrastructure in the keystone areas and a student-facing portal that aggregates resources by their campus across all eight keystones, and a network of practitioners and state agencies coordinating the work behind the scenes, drawing in PDE, the Department of Human Services, Treasury, and PHEAA, as well as PA high schools, college campuses and community-based organizations.
In early April, more than 300 higher education leaders gathered in Harrisburg for the annual EmpowerU convening, representing a sweep of public and private institutions, state agencies, advocacy organizations, and student-success experts from across the Commonwealth. There was a palpable optimism in the conversations, a sense among attendees that they were doing real and meaningful good for students, and a joy that flowed from that conviction.
Interconnected Approaches at the Center
One session in particular stood out: Temple University presented its Basic Needs Assistance Program with Avery Philly, an arrangement with a nearby private housing provider that gives eligible students access to discounted rent alongside additional support for food expenses. The model is creative on its face, but its deeper significance lies in where it looks for solutions. Housing insecurity is one of the most stubborn drivers of attrition in postsecondary education, and Temple’s response reaches outside the traditional toolkit of campus services to enlist a private-sector partner in the work. It is the kind of public-private bridge that more states will need to build if they are serious about turning basic-needs commitments into measurable change for students.
The animating idea of the work is that basic needs supports function as completion infrastructure in their own right. When food, housing, mental health, and belonging receive sustained investment, they stop competing with academic supports for institutional attention and begin reinforcing them.
State Leaders Shepherd Systemic Change
Pennsylvania’s wager is that coordination of experts championing student success at the state level changes outcomes on the ground, and the early evidence appears to bear that out. Practitioners at the convening pointed to a striking indicator: PA campuses report higher rates of student resource utilization than peer states, and they attribute that lift directly to the coordinating role played by the Commonwealth’s higher education office. By mapping available resources, sharing best-practices, brokering cross-agency partnerships, and giving institutions a shared framework for what to offer, the office appears to translate state-level coordination into something measurable on individual campuses, namely more students actually using what is available to them.
For state leaders watching from outside, Pennsylvania’s model offers several features worth studying closely. A single front door for students cuts through the fragmentation that defines most public benefits work, since postsecondary learners rarely think in terms of which agency administers which benefit, and the EmpowerU portal removes that friction by consolidating food assistance guidance, mental health resources, parenting supports, and financial aid in one place. The keystone framework gives every campus the same vocabulary and self-assessment lens, which accelerates peer learning and sharpens gap analysis.
Completion goals do not move without a stable floor under students’ lives. Pennsylvania is showing the field what it looks like to build that floor deliberately, at scale, with real cross-agency coordination that is visible from the outside. There is plenty left to build, but the foundation holds, and other states are watching closely.