4 Steps for Centralizing and Streamlining Student Care

Higher education institutions that bring together previously disjointed approaches to student care gain greater clarity and drive measurable improvements in retention, completion rates, career readiness, and the overall student experience. Discover:

• Common challenges that institutions face in aligning care.
• Four actionable steps to centralize and streamline student support.
• How Civitas Learning partners achieved significant outcomes by implementing coordinated care practices.

Disjointed systems can lead to feeling like a pinball—being bounced between financial aid, advising, faculty, and the registrar over a registration hold—causing confusion and frustration. This doesn’t just affect the student experience, it also puts a strain on institutional resources and can negatively impact outcomes.

When institutions work as a unified team, they break down barriers and overcome common challenges, including:

• Too Many Systems – Navigating multiple platforms is time-consuming and increases the risk of missed opportunities to support students.
• Inefficient Processes – Poor coordination and communication lead to duplicated efforts, wasting time and resources.
• Limited Visibility – Disconnected data makes it hard to see the full picture. Departments need a clear, real-time view to provide better support and make smarter decisions.

Four Steps to Establish a Coordinated Care Network

Below, we share four steps our partner institutions use to align their approach to care and coordinate action to provide the right support at the right time.

1. Organize a Campus-Wide Culture of Student Success 

Creating a strong support system for students isn’t just about adding resources or increasing budgets—it’s about bringing teams together to make informed decisions and take action. Regular collaboration and a data-driven approach help break down silos and create a more connected campus. Relying solely on traditional services like advising, tutoring, and academic coaching limits support opportunities, but integrating them with areas like residential life and career services creates a more meaningful and effective student experience.

However, change is rarely easy, especially for institutions rooted in decades-old processes. Success relies on critical elements such as:

• Aligning teams around a shared vision of student success.
• Ensuring open communication channels across departments.
• Utilizing systems that pull disparate data and systems together and provide a shared view of each student and the factors influencing their success.

Case Study: University of Texas San Antonio

UTSA created a student success partnership that unites the entire campus, using data and analytics to align goals and give teams access to valuable insights. In an episode of the Next Practices podcast, Dr. Tammy Wyatt, Senior Vice Provost for Student Success at UTSA, breaks down how they built a collaborative, data-driven culture and its impact on student success.

Dr. Wyatt explains, “We hold regular monthly meetings with leaders from across campus in what we call a ‘hub and spoke’ model, but it’s really a collective ecosystem of support. We started with a small working group, ensuring representation from all academic colleges and centralized support services. Together, we identified key themes and areas where collaboration was needed to drive meaningful change.”

2. Centralize Student Information for a Unified View

Coordinating care starts with systems that seamlessly organize and manage student information. When data is scattered across multiple disconnected platforms, key insights get lost, and students needing support can be easily overlooked.

A unified platform provides a complete view of each student’s journey—tracking their interactions with support services, extracurriculars, faculty, and more. By consolidating data across teams, institutions can uncover patterns, identify at-risk students, and ensure proactive, personalized support.

This centralized approach prevents students from repeating their stories to multiple people and ensures consistent, informed responses. With real-time, actionable insights, institutions can better understand student outcomes and drive meaningful, lasting improvements.

Case Study: Slippery Rock University

SRU partners with Civitas Learning to leverage actionable insights surfaced in connected workflow tools that provide a comprehensive student view and enable proactive, scalable support. Integrated calendars, appointment notes, and email streamline student interactions, reducing the need for manual tracking and saving support teams valuable time.

With the ability to filter by activity and academic performance, SRU can target specific student groups for personalized outreach. For example, when a faculty member identified at-risk Algebra students who hadn’t accessed online resources, SRU quickly created a group to send reminders and refer them to support services—ensuring timely, effective, and scalable interventions.

3. Build On and Adjust What Works

Open dialogue about institutional data empowers leaders to better understand the impact of initiatives, courses, and programs and adjust them over time. For instance, if supplemental instruction is offered for all English courses, departments requiring these courses for degree completion can assess whether the support improves progression and pinpoint which students benefit most, allowing for more targeted outreach.

While data can sometimes reveal uncomfortable truths—such as poor performance or unexpected challenges—institutions dedicated to meaningful change know that accepting the status quo is not an option. Real progress stems from leveraging insights, taking decisive action, and continually refining strategies.

​Case Study: Snow College

Snow partnered with Civitas Learning to uncover factors influencing student success. Initiative analysis revealed that one-on-one advising boosted persistence by 20% for lower-performing students, compared to 3% for high-performing students. This insight led to strategic adjustments like group advising to free up capacity for those needing individualized support. By embracing a data-driven approach, Snow College identified key drivers of student outcomes and focused resources on the most impactful strategies.

4. Align Institutional Leaders to Make Smarter Decisions

Coordinating care doesn’t just benefit students—it empowers institutions to allocate resources where they’ll have the greatest impact. By integrating insights at both a macro level (institution-wide trends) and a micro level (subgroup-specific needs), leaders can make data-driven decisions that lead to sustainable outcomes.

Traditionally, campus leaders operate in silos, managing information and reporting within their respective schools or departments. However, a collaborative approach—where data analysis is central to decision-making—creates a more connected and effective strategy. By fostering a culture of intentional collaboration, institutions can maximize their return on investment in student success while strengthening long-term financial stability.

Case Study: SUNY Broome University

SUNY Broome University (SUNY Broome) adopted a comprehensive, data-activated strategy that allows them to connect the dots and see the complete student picture, instead of relying solely on their advising interactions. They looked at courses across the curriculum that were most likely to result in a DFW outcome so they could provide proactive support to those enrolled and keep them progressing toward completion. 

When analysis revealed that 45% of their population had at least one DFW on their record, this helped leadership understand the scope of the challenge and  also strengthened their case for securing additional resources to improve outcomes in high-risk courses. By aligning institutional leaders around a shared strategy, SUNY Broome turned insights into action—driving student success and long-term institutional stability.

Final Thoughts:

Coordinating care, leveraging data-informed insights, and fostering collaboration across campus aren’t just strategies—they’re the foundation for better student outcomes and a stronger institution. By aligning resources and focusing on what works, institutions can create meaningful change that benefits students and leaders alike.