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In collaboration with TargetX, Northland Pioneer College launches a new CRM platform to personalize communication with prospective students; remove barriers to enrollment and student success.
Northland Pioneer College, a community college serving a demographically diverse population of Native American, first-generation, and working adult students, announced the launch of a new digital and mobile-friendly enrollment hub that will remove barriers to college access and enrollment. In collaboration with Liaison company TargetX, the developer of a CRM platform for student success and enrollment, admissions staff and other college personnel will be able to use a single platform to track the progress prospective students make toward enrolling—and work collaboratively to guide them through the process.
“College access and completion offers a pathway to social and economic mobility, but the complexity of the enrollment process itself can too often be a deterrent for students from underserved backgrounds and first-generation students,” said Dr. Chato Hazelbaker, president of Northland Pioneer College. “To deliver on our affordability and access mission and support the college-going aspirations of more students, we need to create an enrollment experience that is easier for students to navigate and more supportive of their needs.”
After experiencing an enrollment decline, Northland Pioneer College has set an ambitious institution-wide goal in 2022 to grow enrollment as part of a three-year strategic plan. Over the past year, the college gathered data on its internal enrollment process and determined that a significant number of students who began the application process ultimately never registered. The launch of the TargetX CRM at Northland Pioneer College is part of its internal initiative to enhance the student intake and onboarding processes—and remove barriers to access and enrollment.
Colleges and universities nationwide continue to grapple with two consecutive years of declining enrollment due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with some of the largest decreases occurring at community colleges and among first-generation students. Nationally, Native American student enrollment dropped 13% between 2020 and 2021—the largest decline of any racial or ethnic group. More than 28 percent of Northland Pioneer students identify as American Indian/Alaskan Native. More than 80 percent of students attend part-time, and nearly a third are older than 25.
To streamline the enrollment experience for these diverse student demographics, the college will use a centralized hub from TargetX that will enable students to view their progress in the enrollment process and identify which milestones need to be completed. The TargetX platform will integrate with the college’s existing Salesforce platform to provide a customized solution to support enrollment and engagement on campus. Once students are enrolled, advisors and student support personnel will use the TargetX Retention Suite to receive early alerts, provide information on student services, and communicate proactively with students who may be at risk of withdrawing.
“To counter historic declines in enrollment, community colleges are finding new and creative ways to scale the sort of high-touch communication and support students need to navigate the enrollment and financial aid process,” said Sasha Peterson, chief innovation officer at Liaison International and CEO of TargetX. “This work is about creating an enrollment experience that is more responsive and accessible to students throughout the process—while at the same time empowering administrators with the insights they need to support students during every step of the journey.”
The integration is the latest example of Liaison’s Total Enrollment approach, which enables institutions to integrate historically-siloed products, applications, and workflow tools from other technology providers, such as Salesforce, alongside those developed by Liaison. The features and functionality from across the Liaison family of products provide campus leaders with a unique set of planning, analytics, outreach and communication tools and services to help institutions navigate complex enrollment and retention challenges and tailor support for incoming and enrolled students.
For more information on Liaison’s Total Enrollment solution, visit liaisonedu.com/total-enrollment.
-PR Newswire
