How Data Empowers UNC Asheville’s Crisis Response and Student Retention

The University of North Carolina Asheville (UNCA) is the designated public liberal arts and sciences university and one of 17 institutions in the UNC System. With a student body of just under 3,000, half of whom live on campus, UNCA is dedicated to fostering a supportive and engaging learning environment. Its relationship-driven education model emphasizes small class sizes, close collaboration, and high-impact experiences. 

However, in 2021, UNCA observed a significant drop in fall-to-fall retention rates, signaling a need for a proactive, data-informed approach to student success. To tackle this challenge, they partnered with Civitas Learning to implement a centralized student support system—a move that proved invaluable when they faced an even greater test: responding to the emergency caused by Hurricane Helene in Fall 2024. 

By modernizing its approach to student success, UNCA is now better equipped to support students, improve retention, and efficiently respond to challenges—both expected and unforeseen. 

The Challenge: A Reactive Support Model with Limited Insight into Student Needs 

Managing caseloads and communication across three different systems made it difficult for UNCA’s student success teams, advisors, and administrators to track trends and intervene before it was too late. Without a connected system, there was no single source of truth to drive proactive outreach and support strategic initiatives. Key challenges included: 

• Disconnected student data: Institutional Research (IR) and the Registrar’s office provided a list of students to prioritize for support, but there was no system to track progress on a weekly basis. 
• Ineffective outreach: Mass emails led to low response rates, making engaging students who needed support difficult. 
• Lack of actionable insights: Understanding an advisor’s full caseload was complex and time-consuming, and it was difficult to share insights with key stakeholders. 

Without real-time visibility into student needs, UNCA’s support model remained reactive, limiting their ability to provide timely, personalized interventions. To reverse the decline in student retention, they needed a scalable, proactive approach to address the factors influencing student success. 

“Before Civitas Learning, there was no efficient way to view a student’s individual journey. Creating a student profile required pulling data from five different screens, making it difficult to visualize trends. Without access to real-time data, we could only rely on end-of-semester summaries, limiting our ability to intervene when it mattered most.”

—Lynne Horgan,
University Registrar, University of North Carolina Asheville

The Solution: A Centralized, Data-Informed Student Support Model 

Integrating all student data into one platform with real-time insights transformed UNCA’s approach to student success, equipping them to provide proactive support in everyday situations and respond quickly in times of crisis. By eliminating disconnected systems and manual tracking, advisors and administrators gained a clearer picture of student needs, opening up time and space for effective interventions and personalized outreach. 

Key Improvements Through Civitas Learning: 

• Targeted Student Outreach: Student Success admins could filter by student engagement levels, identifying those who didn’t open a message or failed to take action—allowing for more personalized follow-ups. The platform prompts advisors to dig deeper before initiating an alert, ensuring outreach efforts address root issues rather than symptoms. 
• Daily Advisor Monitoring: With real-time insights, advisors could track key risk indicators—such as a 5%+ drop in persistence predictions, class withdrawals, or low course engagement—to determine when and how to intervene. 
• Academic Standing Review: Team discussions about student support became more informed and action-oriented, with the ability to track student outreach efforts, coaching interactions, and additional data points. Instead of guessing, advisors could see the full picture of student progress and adjust support accordingly.
• Proactive Support Prioritization: Rather than reacting to an overwhelming caseload, advisors could prioritize the 30-40 students in the lower quartile who require immediate support—ensuring timely and focused interventions. 
• Streamlined Communication & Visibility: The platform replaced scattered Google Docs and mass email strategies, giving advisors a clear, organized view of student caseloads and enabling targeted, effective communication. 
• Identifying Systemic Barriers: Insights from course-level data helped pinpoint patterns affecting student success, allowing administrators to address obstacles before they became retention risks. 

From Data to Action: Proactive Support in Times of Crisis 

The cultural shift at UNCA empowered support teams to leverage data-driven insights for more informed, proactive decision-making. By using data to better understand students’ experiences, track trends, and tell a more complete story, teams could scale efforts and provide targeted support at the right time. With limited resources, they needed to be strategic—maximizing time, targeting efforts, and ensuring every action contributes to student outcomes. 

This strong data infrastructure, built through Civitas Learning, also positioned UNCA to respond swiftly and effectively when Hurricane Helene struck. With digital communication systems in place, the team could quickly identify impacted students, send targeted texts, and receive real-time responses—ensuring students were accounted for and had the support they needed. 

“We were committed to reaching our students, ensuring their safety, and understanding their challenges. The ability to quickly send a text with a check-in link instead of spending hours manually reaching out was a game-changer. We could track responses, identify students in need, and prioritize urgent concerns, allowing us to respond swiftly and effectively.”

—Regine Criser, Ph.D,
Director of Student Success, University of North Carolina Asheville

The Outcomes: Boosting Retention and Delivering Rapid Response in Times of Crisis 

UNCA has made remarkable progress, shifting from reactive support based on static data to a proactive approach that reaches students before they ask for help. When disaster struck, Civitas Learning became essential to ensuring swift, effective communication. 

• Rapid Response & Time Efficiency: It took 90 minutes from the decision to reach out to sending targeted texts with a Google Form, providing immediate support in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene.  A cross-divisional team from Student Affairs and Academic Affairs responded quickly to the information shared. Without this system, they would have spent days manually contacting 3,000 students.
• 5% Boost in Fall-to-Fall Retention: Proactive outreach led to sustained student success, with a nearly 5% increase in retention for the Fall 2022 cohort, proving the impact of intentional, data-driven engagement. 
• Improved Registration Rates: Strategic messaging and timely nudges kept students on track, with 90-95% registering on their assigned day—a direct result of effective, proactive communication. 

By modernizing its student success strategy, UNCA has improved retention and engagement and built scalable, data-driven approaches that enhance student outcomes in everyday operations and crisis times.

For more information on how Civitas Learning can help you apply your data to improve the student outcomes that matter most, check out the Civitas Learning Student Impact platform here.