Texas State University

Systematic Approach Designed Specifically to Work At Scale
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The ReUp partnership with Texas State launched in 2020 during a global pandemic. Some might be reluctant to roll out a new initiative like this during such a time, but Gary Ray Associate Vice President for Enrollment Management and Marketing at Texas State explained why the challenges created by the pandemic actually heightened the need for the support made possible through the partnership: “The pandemic has created such uncertainty for a lot of families. The most impacted are the under-resourced communities. I can’t imagine not having a partner like ReUp to work with us during such a tough time to re-engage and recruit back students.”

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Challenge

HOW TO SCALE STUDENT CARE ACROSS ENTIRE STOPOUT POPULATION WITHOUT SACRIFICING QUALITY

With an enrollment of 38,000 students, putting them in the top 40 largest public institutions in the United States, the Texas State University team is accustomed to doing things at scale. Of all the things they do at scale, the most important is delivering a high level of care for their students. They recognized that this should extend not only to their current students but

also to their former students who stopped out before finishing a degree.

In 2018, Texas State created a “Bring Bobcats Back” program designed to reach and support stopped out students in returning to finish their degree. Ray oversees the program and described what they quickly recognized in reaching out to former students: “It is very time intensive work to find these students.”

 

Solution

With multiple reasons all pointing towards the opportunity presented by building up the scale of their stopout work, Ray described how Texas State started to explore their options: “So we began to look at how to scale the program. We found out about ReUp Education through a Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation project. We began talking with ReUp and felt like it was a good opportunity to scale the program by bringing on a third-party partner like ReUp to reach out to those students that we were trying to track down.”

As they explored ReUp, they did not want to sacrifice the standard of care they had delivered to the initial group of 350 students. This was a critical element Texas State has monitored as the partnership launched. Ray explained:

“Naturally when you hire a third party to represent you and be the first outreach to former students, there’s always the question of whether they are going to represent the university with the same level of care.”

We have found the interchange we have with the ReUp success coaches is very reassuring and have seen how professionally they are working with students over time. To see there’s not a push, but a guided approach. We have been very pleased. With the enrollment results, It’s evident that they are working with students in a very professional way.”

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12% increase in enrollment

Results year 1

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Stopout students returned from Fall 2020 to Spring 2021
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100
enrollment growth for ReUp students
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“The pandemic has created such uncertainty for a lot of families. The most impacted are the under-resourced communities. I can’t imagine not having a partner like ReUp to work with us during such a tough time to re-engage and recruit back students.”

— Gary Ray

Associate Vice President for Enrollment Management and Marketing, Texas State University

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