The annual Ellucian Impact Award recognizes higher education institutions that use technology to solve challenges, operate more efficiently, and create better student experiences. In 2025, Ellucian marks the seventh year of offering the Impact Award, with higher ed institutions submitting 49 entries. Five institutions won an Impact Award, each in a different category, for excelling in their use of Ellucian solutions to achieve their ambitions and drive innovation to benefit students, staff, and faculty.
"This year's Impact Award winners and finalists have demonstrated remarkable ingenuity and dedication to transforming institutional operations and initiatives," said Laura Ipsen, President and CEO, Ellucian. "This cohort's innovative applications of Ellucian solutions are making a significant impact on students, faculty, staff, and overall institutional resiliency, and their achievements underscore the profound impact that technology can have on higher education. We are proud to celebrate their success."
Students First
Fayetteville State University Enhances Award Letters and Student Communications with Ellucian Student Financial Success
Fayetteville State University (FSU) won an Impact Award this year for its outstanding efforts in empowering students with Ellucian Student Financial Success. FSU is a four-year public institution serving over 7,000 students, nestled halfway between Charlotte and Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, and is a Historically Black College or University.
Student Financial Success is a suite of tools designed to break down the biggest barrier to student success: Financial uncertainty. To transform enrollment and retention, FSU wielded the Student Financial Success tools Student Forms, which automates and simplifies workflows for staff and students; and Campus Communicator, which enables staff to send dynamic offer letters and notifications.
"The Student Financial Success suite has been an amazing product," said Vincent Harris Jr., Executive Director of Scholarships and Financial Aid at FSU. "It integrated with our system perfectly and I couldn't imagine being able to do some of the cool things that we've done within financial aid without these products."
Before deploying Student Financial Success, FSU completed many of its processes manually, which involved sending generic notifications to students. These notifications detailed award letters, verification forms, FSU's net price calculator, and more. Students then had to log into their accounts and interpret complex financial information with their families. This led to lengthy, time-consuming conversations between students, families, and university staff.
Student Forms has improved accuracy and personalization in FSU's student communications, especially in gathering the necessary information for financial aid paperwork. As a result, error rates in student loan verification have declined.
Meanwhile, Campus Communicator revolutionized FSU's award letters. Staff can fill an award letter with multimedia, enabling students to book a campus tour, accept student loans, apply for housing, and more — all using hyperlinks in the letter and without logging into a separate portal. Furthermore, Campus Communicator has helped the university become one of just 11 universities in North Carolina to meet the stringent standards of the College Cost Transparency Initiative, a set of principles and standards developed by a task force of leaders from ten higher education associations and managed by NASFAA, aimed at improving the clarity and simplicity of financial aid information.
"This Impact Award means a lot for the institution," Harris said. "FSU has put a focus on making sure that we positively impact the student experience — we really want to make sure students have what they need to succeed."
As FSU has embraced and innovated with Student Financial Success, they've streamlined financial aid operations for staff while simplifying the process for students and their families.
"It's made everything better for our office, the campus, students, and staff," said Heather Adner, Associate Director of Financial Aid and Scholarships at FSU. "And receiving the award — we already got the benefits of all the products, but now we get this added bonus that can probably help us improve even further."
Excellence in SaaS Modernization
Kaskaskia College Utilizes Collaboration to Optimize Modernization
Southern Illinois's Kaskaskia College earned its Impact Award for its unique approach to modernization, strongly utilizing a change management philosophy and collaboration with peer institutions.
"The impact of earning this award is felt throughout the entire institution," said George Kriss, Chief Information Officer and Vice President of Institutional Support and Technology at Kaskaskia College. "It was not just one person or 10 people that made this work; it was an entire campus lift."
Before modernizing to a Software as a Service (SaaS) model, Kaskaskia spent valuable time and resources on routine tasks such as patching, updating, and securing servers for its on-premises software. The two-year community college said that its previous reporting systems were "clumsy", "outdated", and "fragmented", resulting in data that was inconsistent and incorrect. The college also faced challenges integrating third-party software like its learning management system, leading to problems with internal workflows and both student and staff user experiences.
Kaskaskia College chose to modernize with Ellucian Student powered by Colleague, Ellucian's SaaS enterprise resource planning (ERP) and student information system (SIS) solution that helps institutions manage the student lifecycle from admissions to graduation. By selecting Ellucian Student, the college made hardware dependencies and maintenance times things of the past, enabling them to operate more efficiently — and with greater cybersecurity protection.
"Ellucian are the experts," Kriss said. "We let their security team deal with keeping the bad guys out. We were able to reduce a tremendous amount of cost by putting that burden on Ellucian."
They also adopted Ellucian Insights, a powerful and intuitive reporting and analytics tool, to be their "single source of truth for data and reporting"; and Ellucian Intelligent Learning Platform, which integrates student information and learning management systems. Insights has enabled Kaskaskia to deliver accurate, real-time analytics, reducing time spent correcting errors; Intelligent Learning Platform integration ensured real-time synchronization between Kaskaskia's SIS and Learning Management System.
Fostering internal and external collaboration was vital to Kaskaskia College's modernization journey. Internally, staff formed the Ellucian Strategic Committee with representatives from each of its departments to achieve clear and consistent understanding and data governance across campus, building trust in institutional data and processes. The committee also provided regular campuswide updates to ensure interdepartmental buy-in.
Externally, the school aligned with peer institutions also using Insights to foster cross-institutional collaboration. Kaskaskia College staff said this included sharing and standardizing reports with those schools as part of what they called a "broader knowledge-sharing model" among community colleges.
At Kaskaskia College, modernization has already reaped rewards. Real-time integration with their learning management system using Intelligent Learning Platform has eliminated a previous 24-hour delay for course enrollments. Students can see how awards have applied to account balances in real time, reducing uncertainty and facilitating better decision making. Moving to SaaS saves the college $471,000 a year in infrastructure costs like server maintenance, while their IT team saves 40 to 60 labor hours monthly. Keeping open ears and open minds facilitated the results they've seen with Ellucian solutions.
"Earning this award validates our push and our movement to modernize our campus," Kriss said. "It shows that we, little Kaskaskia, can be a beacon of light and show how others can do it in a good, positive manner."
Institutional Agility
Montgomery College Prioritizes Feedback on Its SaaS Journey
Montgomery College is modernizing to SaaS, from an on-premises SIS solution. This solution utilizes disparate systems separated into data silos, thereby failing to meet evolving student needs and proving inefficient for staff workflows.
By selecting Ellucian Student powered by Banner, this two-year public college and Hispanic-Serving Institution — located in Rockville, Maryland — projects that it will reduce its technology infrastructure costs by 10% and reduce the time its IT team spends on system maintenance by 80%. Ellucian Student will also help Montgomery College streamline processes such as registration and financial aid processing, reducing time spent by faculty and staff on administrative tasks. Furthermore, due to the enhanced security available with Ellucian SaaS solutions, the college has estimated a 20% reduction in cybersecurity insurance costs.
"It's critical that [a partner] understands what you're trying to accomplish and not just help you implement products, but help you implement change and help you implement something that really brings out what the technology is capable of," said Anna Hamilton, Vice President for Information Technology and Chief Information Officer at Montgomery College. "Creating that strategic partnership with Ellucian is a key to the success that we're achieving at Montgomery College."
But Montgomery College's modernization journey doesn't end with its SIS/ERP system. The institution took advantage of student feedback, employee input, and the staff's collective experiences to inform their goals of improving upon meeting student needs and institutional goals. This philosophy of open-mindedness led Montgomery College to also implement Ellucian solutions such as CRM Advance, Ellucian Apply, Degree Works, and Student Forms.
"As we migrated to SaaS, it was a really great opportunity to look at what we had and what other Ellucian products we can bring into our ecosystem to help us provide something for our students that's meaningful, easy to use, scalable, and that gives them a student experience you would want your children to have," Hamilton said.
CRM Advance cultivates donor relationships and facilitates giving with fundraising software designed for institutional advancement. Ellucian Apply drives enrollment by standardizing and simplifying the admissions experience. Degree Works is a multifaceted tool that facilitates academic advising, streamlines the credit transfer process between institutions, and helps staff conduct degree audits on students. Ellucian solutions have already been a boon for students at Montgomery College as well.
"The technology here has been really accessible and has aided in my academic journey," a student majoring in chemistry said. "I'm able to track my performance in class and it compares my performance to the average, and it's helped me [...] try to do the best I can. In terms of registering for classes, I've been able to research my professors and align the courses that I'm interested in to the courses that I need to graduate, which has been really helpful."
This selection of powerful software enables Montgomery College to reach donors, prospects, and enrolled students better than ever before. With CRM Advance, Montgomery will personalize and deepen engagement with donors and boost fundraising efficiency. Ellucian Apply has simplified the applications process for students at Montgomery College, which staff expect to directly increase enrollment numbers. Degree Works's real-time degree audit information and Student Forms's simplified financial aid verification processes have reduced friction and workload during the enrollment process for students and staff, respectively.
"It wasn't about just improving systems here at Montgomery College," Hamilton said. "It was really about 'How do we leverage the technology and how do we leverage our strategic partnership to engage with our students in a way that sets apart how they interact from the moment that they touch foot or they make contact with Montgomery College?'"
"Everything I need is on the Ellucian portal," another student, majoring in communication studies, said. "It's a one-stop shop for everything a student needs to be successful here. It's quick, everything is there, and it's also very user-friendly as well, whether you're on a desktop or your cell phone. So it’s been great; it's been super helpful."
In addition to the reduction in infrastructure and cybersecurity costs and labor hours devoted to administrative tasks, staff at Montgomery College said they've seen an uptick in completed applications, a smoother transition to enrollment, increased staff productivity, and optimized resource allocation. This journey and its results have shown that Montgomery has taken the idea of modernization and applied it to every facet of its operations.
Unlocking the Power of Data
Muskegon Community College Saves At-Risk Students with Ellucian
Muskegon Community College (MCC) recognized the need to modernize to SaaS and the benefits of doing so, including improved efficiency, scalability, and student support. Staff at this Michigan-based two-year college selected Ellucian Student powered by Colleague and CRM Advise for their modernization journey and enlisted the help of Ellucian Managed Services and Ellucian Strategic Services to provide guidance and IT support to the college every step of the way.
Modernization is crucial to the future of higher ed, but where MCC truly shines is in its use of data. Through data and analytics, the institution saw an opportunity to solve for critical non-academic barriers preventing student success — such as food insecurity, housing challenges, and financial instability — thus helping students in need and ultimately improving retention numbers and student outcomes.
To do so, MCC utilized student data within Ellucian Student and CRM Advise to better understand student needs and provide targeted interventions. They then began wielding this information to make optimal use of the JayHawk Hub, a centralized on-campus resource where students can access resources, including a food pantry, gas cards, bus passes, and more.
"The Jayhawk Hub is, in a nutshell, a system of support," John Selmon, President at Muskegon Community College, said. "We have a variety of services that we offer to students to help them stay in school, continue, persist, and graduate from this institution. We get that student to the Jayhawk Hub and let the system of support take over."
Ellucian Managed Services ensured seamless integration between Ellucian Student, CRM Advise, and MCC's digital ID card system so the college can track student engagement with JayHawk Hub resources in real time. Ellucian Strategic Services helped the college turn all this information into actionable strategies to improve the program's effectiveness.
The Hub also partners with local organizations to address barriers holistically. By doing so, it supports underserved students with a wide range of resources from clothing and food to financial literacy and healthcare. For many, the JayHawk Hub has meant the difference between staying in school or dropping out. Using real-time, dynamic data analytics with Ellucian Student and CRM Advise has played a key role.
Staff say that the successes of the Ellucian-powered JayHawk Hub have bolstered MCC's reputation as a student-centered college and helped make its case for additional funding and community partnerships. These successes have also strengthened relationships with local organizations including food banks, healthcare providers, and transit systems.
"You can't do this work alone," Selmon said. "We have 28 community partners that help us with support services. We try to work with our partners to make sure that we make a difference with our students. We meet on a regular basis with the community partners and we really talk about a partnership — a true partnership where everybody has some skin in the game.
"We're working together to make sure that our student — their client — is successful, and that's the beauty of it."
Most importantly, more students are continuing their educational journeys at MCC. Among the 25 students per day who use the JayHawk Hub, student persistence, which continued fall-to-winter enrollment determines, has improved by 11%. Retention, which details fall-to-fall continuation, has risen by 3%. Course success rates — determined by students achieving a C grade or better — have improved by 6%.
By using precise, targeted data obtained with Ellucian software, Muskegon Community College is improving student outcomes and strengthening not only its position in the community, but the community itself.
Conclusion
In an evolving higher education landscape, making the best use of technology is critical. Ellucian is proud to present Fayetteville State University, Kaskaskia College, Montgomery College, University of New England, and Muskegon Community College with this year's Impact Award for truly excelling in the ways they've utilized Ellucian solutions.
For more information on how Ellucian can help your institution bolster success and improve student outcomes, please visit Ellucian.com.
