Removing Barriers Across the Student Lifecycle

A Hispanic-Serving Institution located in South Texas, Laredo College hosts more than 11,500 predominantly first-generation students in a city shaped by rapid cross-border trade and evolving workforce demands. Many learners across the community college's two campuses balance full-time employment, family responsibilities, and limited access to technology, relying primarily on mobile devices to manage their education.

"We do our best to provide students with resources so that they stay not only enrolled and retained, but also can get to their goals much quicker," said Dr. Minita Ramirez, President of Laredo College. "We want to provide critical support in a way that we can track our students and the services they're using."

When Dr. Ramirez first arrived at Laredo, its on-premises Banner system was underutilized and burdened by inefficiencies. The school's goals to strengthen community access and workforce alignment, meanwhile, required a modern technology platform capable of delivering mobile responsiveness, accurate reporting, and visibility across the student lifecycle.

"They were using Banner for everything — HR, Finance, Student — but only using maybe 30–40% of its old capacity," Ramirez said. "We were still on Banner 8, and we were constantly trying to put out fires and finding documents that were on paper."

While evaluating modernization opportunities, Laredo determined that other platforms could not support the institution's academic structure or operational complexity. The school decided to upgrade to Ellucian Student powered by Banner and Ellucian HCM & Finance — purpose-built for higher education on Ellucian's industry-leading SaaS platform — as its next-generation ERP/SIS foundation.

"When we started to look at options, there were other possibilities, but they were not built for higher ed," Ramirez said. "They were built for business, the medical profession, grocery stores, K–12. The SIS systems reviewed were not built with college and university structures in mind."

"Ellucian was. This system made it a no-brainer for the committee."

Forging Pathways for Students

Today, faculty and staff across Laredo College have more accurate, real-time visibility into student information, helping them respond faster and support students more effectively.

Students also benefit from mobile-first access to academic information, registration tools, and financial aid visibility — critical improvements for learners who rely heavily on their phones to manage school, work, and family responsibilities. 95% of Laredo students report using PASPort, the College’s mobile-friendly central workspace app, at least once a week.

"Our students appreciate it because they can access their information much easier and quicker," Ramirez said. "Everything is happening in real time, and it makes a huge difference compared to before."

New Ellucian Student capabilities are also helping smooth enrollment and degree pathways. Degree audit processing times dropped from up to eight days to approximately two. Grade rollovers that once depended on overnight batches now occur in minutes. Students now receive clearer information about financial aid, which has influenced enrollment patterns and helped the institution reach more learners.

"The first semester we went live, we increased our full-time enrollment by 1,588 students because students were able to see their financial aid immediately," Ramirez said. "If a student can go into their portal and see, 'If I enroll, I'm going to get my classes paid for,' that has a huge impact. It influences whether they're going to sign up for classes next semester. That affects retention, graduation rates."

Freeing up Time for Staff

Smarter workflows enabled by Ellucian Student have freed Laredo staff members to spend more time with students rather than navigating manual data entry and administrative complexity.

"We've eased that pain so conversations with current and prospective students can take center stage," Ramirez said. "Employees appreciate it, students appreciate it. The community appreciates it, because we can now spend time developing programming that is more efficient and supportive of both students and community needs."

Ellucian HCM & Finance further strengthened Laredo's operational foundations by automating processes, improving compliance controls, and providing real-time analytics. According to Ramirez, the natural integration with Ellucian Student saves her staff valuable time.

"I came from a school using Banner for Student and a different system for Finance and HR," Ramirez said. "It became extremely difficult because we were having to enter things twice."

At Laredo College, on-premises Banner was in use for everything, HR, Finance, Student. However, by moving from on-premises infrastructure to a SaaS-native environment, Laredo College also reduced maintenance demands and improved operational resilience. The institution's IT team now spends less time managing servers and troubleshooting outages, allowing staff to focus on strategic initiatives, training, and system optimization.

"Now, IT spends more time doing what I consider more effective outreach," Ramirez said. "They're more involved with what certain applications can do, versus trying to ensure the computer is working or that someone can access the system at all."

Looking to the Future with Ellucian AI

As Laredo looks to the future, Dr. Ramirez says the college will continue to explore AI-enabled capabilities to support each stage of the student experience.

"It's no longer just about access; it's about access to sustainability culminating in graduation," Ramirez said. "Where are students going? How are we tracking them for the workforce or transfer? Getting all of that done quickly is critical. The AI solutions within SaaS have helped a great deal."

Laredo College is also implementing Ellucian's AI-powered lifelong learning capabilities to help students better understand the relationship between credentials, workforce opportunities, and long-term earning potential.

"This implementation is going to help continuing ed, workforce programs, and every student on campus," Ramirez said.

For Laredo College, modernizing with Ellucian is a collaborative and mission-driven effort to expand opportunities, remove barriers, and support student success at every stage of the learner journey.

"Our relationship with the Ellucian staff has been incredible," Ramirez said. "I pick up the phone and call, and they're always there. They've been extremely supportive, we couldn't have done it without everybody's help. It's a team and we are a family, The Palomino Family."