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From Funnel to Finish Line: UWF’s Unified Strategy for Enrollment Growth and Retention
Automation can listen at scale, but only people can respond with precision.
— a reflection from our conversation with the University of West Florida
Automation Ends Where Advocacy Begins
Across higher education, leaders are balancing shrinking budgets, shifting demographics, and rising expectations. Technology often gets framed as the hero.
But when I spoke with Katie Condon and Dr. Patrice Moorer from the University of West Florida (UWF), their story wasn’t about tools — it was about alignment.
They described an institution built on rhythm and reciprocity rather than hierarchy — where enrollment and academic affairs move in concert instead of competition.
In that collaboration, UWF is quietly prototyping a behavioral operations model for higher ed — where communication design, behavioral science, and cross-functional alignment produce measurable outcomes without major budget increases.
It’s not a story about technology; it’s a story about attention — and what happens when people decide to coordinate before they automate.
Precision as Progress
UWF’s success began not with a system overhaul, but with a sentence.
Condon recalled the moment they realized their “missing materials” message — you’re missing documents, check your checklist — wasn’t helping students complete applications.
So they rewrote it. Each version named the exact missing item and included a direct link. It was a small act of clarity that led to a measurable five-percent bump in completions and a dramatic uptick in enrollment.
“It wasn’t about sending more messages,” she said in our conversation, “but about sending messages that actually see the student.”
That insight has become shorthand for UWF’s approach — and a defining principle for how Mainstay designs messaging with partners.
Katie Condon explains how small communication shifts drove measurable enrollment gains.
Behavioral Science in Action
That message design philosophy didn’t stop at admissions. Across campus, the same behavioral science principles were applied to academic outreach.
Instead of broad “you’re falling behind” reminders, UWF shifted to personalized, action-oriented messages tied to specific courses or needs.
The results were immediate: response rates nearly doubled, students re-engaged faster, and advisors could focus on meaningful interventions rather than chasing generic alerts.
Patrice Moorer shares how her team redesigned messages to make behavior change measurable.
Automation Ends Where Advocacy Begins
For Moorer, automation’s value lies in how it creates capacity for human care. She explained that while many campaigns are purely informational, others demand empathy: a student texting about financial strain or a registration hold doesn’t need a chatbot — they need a person.
“That’s where our advocacy team steps in,” she said. “The bot opens the door, and then we walk through it.”
That distinction — between listening at scale and responding with precision — defines the boundary of good automation. It’s not about doing everything faster; it’s about knowing when to stop automating.
Patrice Moorer explains how automation and human connection work hand-in-hand to prevent students from falling through the cracks.
Listening as Design
When UWF says student voice matters, they mean it literally.
Their Student Advisory Board — a small group of students from across disciplines — reviews messages before campaigns go live.
“They’re the ones who told us, ‘Don’t text during finals week,’” Moorer recalled, laughing. “That might sound small, but it changed how we plan our cadence.”
That kind of humility — the willingness to redesign around feedback — is what gives UWF’s outreach its warmth. It’s not marketing; it’s conversation design.
Katie Condon and Patrice Moorer discuss how UWF fine-tunes communication using student feedback and engagement data.
Collaboration as System Design
Many campuses struggle with silos between Enrollment and Academic Affairs. UWF’s solution wasn’t a reorg — it was a rhythm.
Every Friday, Condon and Moorer meet to align their teams around a single student experience. Those meetings, they said, are where strategy turns into practice.
If one message creates confusion, they fix it. If another sparks action, they replicate it.
By making collaboration a cadence rather than a committee, they’ve turned communication into infrastructure.
Every message a student receives reflects the same shared intent: help them take the next step confidently.
Emotional Intelligence as Infrastructure
Both leaders describe empathy as a measurable skill.
Condon said they monitor student behavior to adjust messaging tone and frequency — watching for engagement dips as signals, not failures. “If something isn’t resonating,” she explained, “we change it. Communication has to feel human.”
Dr. Moorer put it even more succinctly:
“You can have the best data in the world, but if your message feels cold or it hits at the wrong time, it doesn’t matter. Timing is part of caring.”
That mindset turns emotional intelligence into infrastructure — the hidden architecture of trust behind every automated system.
The Human Infrastructure Model
At UWF, belonging isn’t an initiative; it’s a shared ethic.
Moorer described how even facilities staff play a role in supporting students. “If someone looks lost, they don’t just walk past them — they help,” she said. “Everyone plays a part.”
Condon nodded during that exchange: “It takes a village. Our faculty, staff, advisors, recruiters — we’re all part of the same mission.”
That’s what makes their model durable: when everyone contributes, the system itself becomes human.
Putting it All Together
UWF’s outcomes — enrollment up 10%, first-time students up 26%, retention rising — are measurable proof that empathy scales. But the deeper lesson is cultural.
As Condon told me, “It takes a village, but you also have to make sure the village is talking to each other. That’s what gets results.”
What I learned from UWF is simple: automation can listen at scale, but only people can respond with precision.
And when technology amplifies that precision, it doesn’t just increase capacity — it builds connection.
At Mainstay, we help colleges scale conversations that feel personal.
When you automate with empathy — like UWF — you turn messages into moments of care.