Ellucian's 2025 Impact Awards Celebrate Higher Education Changemakers and Innovations for Student Success

Institutions recognized across four categories for exploring new horizons in higher education technology

RESTON, Va. and ORLANDO, Fla., April 9, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Ellucian, the leading higher education technology solutions provider, announced the winners of its seventh annual Impact Awards at Ellucian Live, the industry's premier technology conference. The annual Ellucian Impact Awards recognize higher education leaders who leverage Ellucian's innovative technology solutions to achieve better outcomes for students and their institutions.

"This year's Impact Award winners and finalists have demonstrated remarkable ingenuity and dedication to transforming institutional operations and initiatives," said Laura Ipsen, President and CEO, Ellucian. "The innovative applications of Ellucian solutions demonstrated by our award winners are making a significant impact on students, faculty, staff, and overall institutional resiliency. Their achievements underscore the profound impact that technology can have on higher education, and we are proud to celebrate their success."

2025 Ellucian Impact Award-winning institutions will each receive $25,000 award recognizing achievements across four categories, including Students First, Unlocking the Power of Data, Excellence in SaaS Modernization, and Institutional Agility.

The four 2025 Ellucian Impact Award Winners are:

Students First

Fayetteville State University — Fayetteville, N.C.
Fayetteville State University (FSU), a prominent Historically Black College and University (HBCU) dedicated to promoting student financial success, has introduced a range of solutions aimed at optimizing the financial aid process. The university went beyond standard student award emails by adding enrollment resources and ensuring adherence to College Cost Transparency Initiative standards. In just three months, FSU achieved a 62% open rate for the 2025 aid year, logged 493 uses of the net price calculator, and handled 462 Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP) appeals, which contributed to a deeper understanding of prospective students' needs and interests. With Ellucian, FSU streamlined its operations, enhanced data accuracy, and improved communication with students, resulting in the issuance of, as of November 2024, 2,948 aid letters. This integration also fostered better faculty engagement, ultimately leading to improved enrollment, retention, and completion rates.

Unlocking the Power of Data

Muskegon Community College — Muskegon, Mich.
Leveraging data from Ellucian solutions, Muskegon Community College (MCC) created the JayHawk Hub to address challenges in resource allocation and support to aid underserved students. JayHawk addresses critical non-academic barriers preventing student success, such as food insecurity, housing challenges, and financial instability. What makes this initiative unique is the use of real-time engagement tracking enabled by Ellucian Colleague SaaS and Ellucian CRM Advise. Using these tools, MCC can identify at-risk students based on key indicators such as financial aid status, academic performance, and attendance patterns. Data from measuring student interaction with JayHawk Hub resources enabled MCC to provide support based on student demands, reinforce their reputation as a student-centered college, secure additional funding, and strengthen community partnerships. For many students, the JayHawk Hub was a deciding factor in staying enrolled and it has contributed to higher retention, persistence, and course success rates across the College.

Excellence in SaaS Modernization

Kaskaskia College — Centralia, Ill.
Kaskaskia College (KC) is recognized for excellence in SaaS modernization through its transition from their on-premises system to Colleague SaaS. After migrating to SaaS, the college successfully automated manual processes and eliminated hardware, leading to significant cost savings and increased productivity among staff and faculty. No longer needing to spend time on patches, updates, security fixes, and supporting the software bridges of third-party systems, KC's IT department is saving 40-60 hours a week and can now focus on strategic mission initiatives including deployment of new solutions to enhance the campus experience. Kaskaskia saved $471,000 annually in infrastructure costs by eliminating on-premises servers, software licenses, and disaster recovery software. Additionally, their strategic use of analytics through Ellucian Insights has allowed for more effective data-driven decision-making, enabling KC to refine course and program offerings, aligning them with student interests and market demands.

Institutional Agility

Montgomery College — Rockville, Md.
As a Hispanic-serving institution, Montgomery College has demonstrated institutional agility by modernizing to Banner SaaS. This transition is expected to help the college navigate evolving challenges in higher education while achieving a 10% reduction in technology infrastructure costs, a 10% reduction in time on completing manual work, an 80% reduction in IT time spent on system maintenance, and a 20% reduction in cybersecurity insurance costs. Montgomery's new platform has also had a profound impact on operational efficiency and productivity, streamlining processes such as registration and financial aid processing and reducing the time faculty and staff spend on administrative tasks. With SaaS, Montgomery is improving outcomes and revenue generation through a smoother path to enrollment.

For more information on Ellucian solutions, visit: https://www.ellucian.com/solutions/all-products.

ABOUT ELLUCIAN
Ellucian powers innovation for higher education, partnering with more than 2,900 customers across 50 countries, serving 20 million students. Ellucian's AI-powered platform, trained on the richest dataset available in higher education, drives efficiency, personalized experiences, and strengthened engagement for students, faculty and staff. Fueled by decades of experience with a singular focus on the unique needs of learning institutions, the Ellucian platform features best-in-class SaaS capabilities and delivers insights needed now and into the future. These solutions and services span the entire student lifecycle, including data-rich tools for student recruitment, enrollment, and retention to workforce analytics, fundraising, and alumni engagement. Ellucian's innovative solutions, vast ecosystem of partners and user community of more than 45,000 provides best practices leading to greater institutional success and achieving better student outcomes.

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SOURCE Ellucian