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University of Colorado

Salesforce empowers administrators, staff, and faculty at the University of Colorado to support students across their university journey.
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A System-Wide Move to Digitally Transform the Student Experience


The University of Colorado (CU) is a public university system with four campuses, 67,000 students, and 35,000 faculty and staff. This sprawling state university is large and complex, and its students come from a variety of backgrounds. At the University of Colorado Colorado Springs (UCCS), for example, 30% of students are the first in their families to attend college, a third are low-income students, and 20% are students connected to the military. To succeed, these students need tailored support—individualized outreach and engagement the university was eager to enhance. 

To fundamentally transform the way their campuses and departments engage with their diverse student body, CU leaders know they need to address the limitations of their existing systems. All of CU’s constituent data—including prospects, applicants, current students, alumni, faculty, and staff—exists in different locations. It is incredibly challenging to integrate data or track communications between faculty, staff, and students. Plus, the manual processes required to cobble together student-related data requires inordinate amounts of staff time that takes the focus away from what matters most—the student.

Serving CU Constituents with a Digital-First Approach 

CU administrators decided to take a digital-first strategy to improve the CU constituent journey. They selected Salesforce for its purpose-built education products and solutions that focus on creating exceptional, lifelong constituent experiences. 

Using Salesforce.org Education Cloud, CU is expected to gain the following:

  • All student information is stored in one place, securely and in the cloud.
  • Staff and faculty have all needed data at their fingertips, with readily-accessible reports and dashboards. 
  • Staff, advisors, and faculty can easily onboard students, monitor performance, and engage with students, from anywhere.
  • Staff can readily engage with alumni and other constituents by sharing pertinent information at the right time, such as relevant graduate programs. 

Using Salesforce, administrators, staff, and faculty are empowered to effectively support students across their full university journey.

“CRM is no longer optional—it is critical. Higher education is a competitive industry. We are trying to attract the best, brightest, and most diverse student body we can. And once they’re here, it’s really important that they succeed,” said Joanna Iturbe, Enterprise CRM Director at the University of Colorado. 

UCCS Spotlight: Reimagining the Recruitment and Admissions Experience

The enrollment team at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs (UCCS) needed a way to optimize their admissions process to provide an interconnected experience for its prospective students. UCCS receives applications from a significant number of first-generation, low-income, and military-affiliated prospects. The Enrollment Management Unit needed a better way to connect with this diverse group of prospective students with meaningful, engaging, and tailored information concerning their applications and other aspects of the admission and enrollment process critical to student success. 

Providing Prospective Students with Knowledge and Information to Succeed

With Admissions Connect, UCCS provides students with an integrated application process that can be accessed by all stakeholders in the admissions process. This includes not only the prospective students and their families but also UCCS staff and high school guidance counselors. 

With Admissions Connect, UCCS expects to: 

  • Enable students to easily submit and track their application and more. 
  • Keep students on track with their applications using checklists and tasks.
  • Maintain an accessible record of all communications and documents concerning the student’s application.
  • Streamline the application review process for the UCCS admissions team.
  • Provide data to other departments to use as students progress through their higher education journey.

UCCS is using Admissions Connect to reach prospective students earlier and more impactfully.

“We got into this business to help people create better lives for themselves. Salesforce and Admissions Connect will help us achieve this goal,” said Mathew Cox, Senior Executive Director for Enrollment Management at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs.

Building Lifelong Relationships with CU Constituents

By integrating Salesforce across its four campuses, CU leaders expect to see vast improvements in how the university reaches and connects with students.

Using Salesforce, CU will be able to:

  • Save time so faculty and staff can focus on the things that need their attention the most
  • Support students in real time with increased access to information and tools specific to where they are in the student journey
  • Be better equipped to meet students in their moment of need
  • Exceed students’ engagement expectations

With Salesforce, CU administrators, faculty, and staff will be able to deliver the experience students deserve and expect. 

About the University of Colorado & the University of Colorado Colorado Springs

The University of Colorado is a public university that has four campuses: Boulder, Colorado Springs, Denver, and Anschutz Medical Campus. The entire CU system has an enrollment of more than 66,000 students and had more than $1.4 billion in research grants in 2019-20. The University of Colorado Colorado Springs (UCCS) serves almost 12,000 students annually, and 34 percent of its population identifies as diverse. UCCS employs 1,600 faculty and staff members and awards more than 2,400 degrees each year. Students can enroll in in-person, online, and hybrid programs. UCCS serves a significant number of first-generation, low income, and military-affiliated students and focuses on small class sizes and affordable tuition.