Portland State University landed a nearly $3 million federal grant to put AI chatbots and peer tutors into introductory courses with high fail rates.

The five-year award of $2,995,791 comes from the Strengthening Institutions Program, a U.S. Department of Education initiative that the Department of Labor administered this funding cycle. PSU announced the grant Oct. 21, calling it Project SAIL, short for Student AI for Learning.

The target: early STEM and business courses with high drop, fail and withdrawal rates. Peer tutors will be embedded in each class. A course-level chatbot will route students to the right support services.

Shoshana Zeisman-Pereyo, executive director of Student Academic Support Services, said Project SAIL will eliminate the "navigation penalty" for PSU students.

That penalty falls hardest on commuter students, first-generation undergrads and those receiving Pell Grants, who often lack time to seek out campus resources on their own.

"We want to make it easier for students to get the support they need to succeed in their courses, without having to figure out where to go or find extra time in an already busy schedule," said Andrea Garrity, PSU's executive director for Student Success.

The grant also funds curriculum changes. Career readiness courses will add short AI learning units covering prompt engineering, algorithmic bias, data privacy and data-pattern analysis.

The program fits PSU's student profile. The university says 43% of its students are first-generation college students and 78% receive financial aid. The Strengthening Institutions Program requires that at least half of an institution's degree students receive need-based aid.

The new money arrives as PSU works through a $35 million budget shortfall over fiscal years 2026 through 2028. The university's Bridge to the Future 2.0 plan has already eliminated 61.8 full-time equivalent positions and saved $13.2 million in its first year, according to PSU's budget office.

PSU has not said which courses will be first to get embedded tutors or when students will see the chatbot.