Gwinnett Technical College

The annual Ellucian Impact Award recognizes higher education institutions leveraging technology to alleviate and reduce administrative burdens, retain and grow top talent, and enable staff and faculty to succeed with best-in-class tools and insights.

Public two-year institution and 2023 Impact Award winner Gwinnett Technical College (GTC) reorganized its Student Affairs Division, increased staff training and access to data, and expanded its efforts to leverage technology. As a result, GTC could more efficiently and effectively serve students throughout enrollment and financial aid processes, while empowering their staff to do their most impactful work.

The Challenge: Lack of Training, Not Technology

Prior to the pandemic, GTC experienced record enrollment growth. But in the years since, enrollment had declined significantly and staff turnover spiked. To respond, the Student Affairs Division created strategic goals focused on two priorities.

The first was to improve the student journey from recruitment to completion. Prior to the reorganization, the processing time for a prospective student’s application was 10 business days. Financial aid awards could take over three weeks. Delays were worsened by confusing or insufficient communication to students, as well as cumbersome processes that required staff assistance to navigate. Streamlining technology was available, but adequate training was not.

That's where the second priority came in: empowering staff to better serve students. At the time, staff morale had been low, with mounting pressures as enrollment continued to decline and turnover rates increased. The Student Affairs Division prioritized expanding staff usage of solutions such as Banner and Degree Works, with onboarding programs to help them use those tools effectively.

Additionally, GTC had a data problem. They collected a significant amount of information from students and staff but had no way of using it to create change. The Student Affairs Division aimed to equip their staff with appropriate access and training to leverage data. As a result of the reorganization, GTC equipped their staff with all the tools and preparation they needed to succeed.

The Solutions: Data-driven Processes and Support Plans

In reorganizing the Student Affairs Division, GTC created a culture in which staff are encouraged to ask questions and challenge the status quo. And thanks to increased data access and training, they have the tools they need to seek out answers and take informed actions.

Teams can now write queries to extract specific datapoints from Banner. This has enabled outreach to students who were enrolled but did not submit a FAFSA, students who tried to register but received an error message, and others who had stopped out entirely.

Many students encounter roadblocks on their educational journey but maintain an interest in re-enrolling. Using SQL queries, GTC identified a list of students that fit these criteria and created a communication plan to help them get back on track. 181 students re-enrolled because of the campaign, representing over $225,000 in tuition and fees for the fall 2022 term.

As GTC continues to leverage student information, they can create more proactive, personalized, and effective support plans throughout the student journey. Data has turned staff into change agents, helping countless students enroll and persist. In the six months since the reorganization, team morale has improved and turnover has decreased by half.

Improved Financial Aid and Student Enrollment

Using CRM Recruit, GTC created workflows and task-tracking to optimize staff resources and strengthen the recruitment funnel. Additionally, GTC implemented and standardized communication plans, helping to troubleshoot common application issues and providing clearer, more consistent information for prospects throughout the admissions process.

As a result of these changes, there was an 18% increase in new applications for the summer 2022 term compared to the prior year, and an increase of 9% for fall 2022. Admitted students also increased by 7% and 6% for summer and fall, respectively.

Enrolling students is just as crucial as retaining them, which made financial aid delays an urgent problem. Previously, aid advisors had the data they needed to process student requests, but lacked the tools to keep up with demand. To help alleviate the problem, the Student Affairs Division required training for all financial aid staff and division leadership to learn critical federal and state financial aid information related to student questions, while equipping them with a suite of streamlining financial aid solutions.

Since implementation, financial aid processing time has been reduced from three weeks to a minimum of three business days. By reducing the time-to-award, GTC helped drive a 3% increase in the number of students enrolled with financial aid in the fall 2022 term, with a 9% increase for the academic year.

Student financial success solutions transformed the financial aid experience for both students and staff. In a recent GTC new student survey, respondents indicated that their enrollment decision was notably influenced by their award information being available sooner than at other institutions. And financial aid leadership has been able to revamp roles to focus more on student outcomes, rather than just aid processes, creating new career opportunities for their team.

Looking Ahead

By harnessing available technology and data, GTC has empowered their staff and made a significant impact on student success. After reorganizing the Student Affairs Division, increasing training opportunities, expanding data access, and utilizing new and existing solutions, GTC saw improvements in enrollment, processing times, student satisfaction, and staff turnover rates. Not only equipped with these tools, but empowered to use them, GTC's Student Affairs Division will continue working to improve outcomes from recruitment to completion and every step in between.