Background

In 2021, the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education (PASSHE) focused on a “System Redesign” as a multi-phase, System-wide effort to:

1. Advance student success
2. Leverage universities’ strengths as a system
3. Enhance “systemness” through accountability and governance

As a result, six institutions within PASSHE were consolidated into two:

• Bloomsburg, Lock Haven and Mansfield Universities merged to create the Commonwealth University of Pennsylvania.
• California University of Pennsylvania, Clarion University of Pennsylvania and Edinboro University of Pennsylvania became Pennsylvania Western University (PennWest).

In support of the effort, the Board of Governors established metrics-based expectations for each university’s financial stability, transparency, accountability and sustainability.

Challenge

In April 2021, PennWest and Commonwealth University of Pennsylvania faced distinctive challenges during their mergers, as both were at different stages of the integration process. PennWest was nearing the finish line of building a centralized Slate platform that would streamline the recruitment processes of three institutions into one. They needed to ensure that the single entry point that thousands of new PennWest students would pass through met each institution’s needs and reflected the new PennWest brand. Commonwealth University of Pennsylvania sought a centralized platform that would serve all three institutions. While Lock Haven and Mansfield Universities were familiar with Slate–and were existing RHB clients–Bloomsburg University had not previously utilized the platform.

Solution

For 12 months, RHB worked concurrently with PennWest on their branded application portal and with Commonwealth University of Pennsylvania to build out their centralized Slate platform. Leveraging our Slate expertise and our talented team of designers and frontend developers, RHB was able to design a branded application creation portal for PennWest that met the needs of the independent campuses while engaging the overarching new brand. Additionally, our team was held on retainer for general consulting, project-based work and virtual training sessions designed within the integrated platform. For Commonwealth University of Pennsylvania, RHB worked with a core implementation team to fully implement a centralized platform to serve all institutions. Our implementation began with intensive discovery sessions held both on-campus and virtually due to the pandemic. Our initial engagement served as both process analysis and education for the teams. During this integration, RHB was also providing support to Mansfield and Lock Haven as existing clients in separate databases, directly informing the integration project.

Results

Noah Porter, associate director of admissions at Commonwealth University of Pennsylvania and one of RHB’s key point people for the project explains:

“The integration of Bloomsburg, Lock Haven and Mansfield Universities had numerous challenges to overcome as a trailblazer in the higher education landscape. Thankfully, the Enrollment Management division was able to strategically partner with RHB to help define how our university would utilize a single instance of Slate. The knowledge and experience that RHB provided to the newly-formed Commonwealth University proved invaluable as we transformed three individual university identities into one cohesive image. RHB played an instrumental role throughout the lifecycle of planning, development, implementation and end user training.”

—Noah Porter, associate director of admissions at Commonwealth University of Pennsylvania

RHB’s deep understanding of enrollment management, organizations and unparalleled technical acumen uniquely position our firm as the go-to provider for institutions seeking creative, sustainable solutions for complex processes and transformative experiences. The institutions noted above have found greater efficiency, reshaped their market positions and been more effective in recruiting students.