APLU Annual Meeting Sponsor Post: Supporting Students Holistically Through A Challenging Year

By Starfish by Hobsons

2020 has been a year of challenges for higher education. In addition to the COVID-19 pandemic and the challenges of a sudden shift to remote learning, this year has also further highlighted ongoing issues of equity and access to education for students, especially in the remote learning environment.

Public universities have been at the forefront of addressing these challenges. Starfish by Hobsons has been proud to support our 100+ public university partners, from the State University of New York to Northern Marianas College, as they worked quickly to adapt and continue their work providing holistic support to their students in virtual and hybrid settings.

Penn State built upon its success with Starfish’s platform to support its 100,000 students across 24 campuses during the transition to remote learning. This helped the university maintain students’ critical connections with faculty, advisors, tutors, and other essential student support services. For their ongoing commitment to student success, Penn State was awarded the 2020 Hobsons Education Advances Award for Student Success.

Similarly, the advising office at Florida Atlantic University seized the opportunity to drive deeper engagement and better experience for their students during the shift to remote learning. Through providing students the opportunity to schedule virtual advising appointments through Starfish, FAU saw their students’ no-show rate drop in half from pre-pandemic levels.

Texas Tech University strengthened their investment in student success by partnering with Starfish in 2020. Their student success team collaborated closely with Starfish consultants to migrate their data and implement the new student success platform in an incredible six weeks. This partnership allowed Texas Tech to better support more than 8,500 new Red Raiders attending virtual orientation this fall.

With all of the challenges 2020 has presented, it is important today more than ever to support our nation’s students and to help them succeed. Beyond software, Starfish is proud to serve as a true strategic partner for public universities as they continue to raise the bar for student success.