The University of New Mexico Texts First-Year Students to Boost Retention

How a public research university support first-year students using Modern Campus Message

About The University of New Mexico

 

 

26,000+

students

 

215+

degree and certificate programs

 

53%

six-year graduation rate

interviewed in this case study: Corine Gonzales, Strategic Project Manager, UNM Division of Enrollment Management

I strongly recommend Modern Campus Message. I’ve been extremely pleased with the customer service and support we’ve received. The platform is very user-friendly. The example text messages that were provided to us worked extremely well in helping us see that we were right on track.

Corine Gonzales

The University of New Mexico uses Message to engage first-year students with timely and relevant messages. The goal is to improve retention rates by sending reminders about important deadlines and answering questions from students.

Here's our interview with Corine Gonzales, who oversees the texting intiative. 

What challenges led you to texting? 

We wanted an innovative way to communicate with students, through a way that they communicate. We make a lot of phone calls and send out quite a few emails to students. We did not receive a good response as far as students answering their phones or reading their emails, so we wanted to try the texting approach. 

How do you measure student success? 

One way is by determining, through registration, if a student has returned for a second and third semester. Also, we measure success by attainment of scholarships and/or financial aid, along with persisting through graduation. 

How did you plan the timing and content of your text messages? 

We already had an email and phone call communication effort. From this, we were able to identify areas in which texts would be beneficial regarding important reminders. We strategically send these out every 3 weeks. 

Which staff respond to text messages from students? 

A graduate student is responsible for answering the texts. When we send a text out, she continuously responds within the first few hours. I am backup for responding to messages. 

 

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About Modern Campus

Modern Campus empowers 1,700+ higher education institutions to attract, engage, and retain learners for life with software solutions that enable a modern student experience. 

The Modern Campus learner-to-earner lifecycle platform powers solutions for web content managementconversational text messagingcatalog and curriculum managementcareer pathwaysstudent engagement and development, and non-traditional student management. The result: innovative institutions engage their modern learners for life, while providing modern administrators with the tools needed to streamline workflows and drive high efficiency.  

Learn how Modern Campus is leading the modern learner-to-earner movement at moderncampus.com and follow us on LinkedIn. 

 

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