La Salle University Replaces Portal with Pathify
At La Salle University, finding the simplest piece of information felt like a constant scavenger hunt. The university’s former portal platform offered little more than a list of links, leaving students, faculty and staff clicking through endless pages to find what they needed.
This subpar experience pushed Alicia Stonesifer, Assistant Vice President of Information Technology and CIO, and Michael Nielsen, Director, Enterprise Applications, to search for a better solution. As the team sought a more user-friendly, personalized platform to serve their nearly 5,000 campus constituents (and with their legacy portal contract nearing expiration), pressure mounted as the team only had a few months to implement a new campus hub.
Searching for a New Solution
With a small IT team, Stonesifer and Nielsen needed a solution that didn’t add complexity or introduce more problems than it solved. It also needed to be mobile-friendly, with advanced push notifications.
The team remained hyper-focused on student engagement and platform extensibility — transforming the former link farm into a scalable, future-proof platform. Discovering Pathify’s Campus Experience Platform (CXP) through the HESS Consortium gave Stonesifer and Nielsen the peer validation to move forward confidently.
“Pathify fits lean teams like ours,” Nielsen reflected. While organizing content and workflows required some internal coordination, “the system felt straightforward to set up — another huge selling point,” he added. Most importantly, Pathify would launch quickly, with a deployment pace that aligned with the university’s needs and vendor expectations.
A Smooth, Student-Approved Launch
The university re-launched my.lasalle at the end of the spring 2025 term. This included providing a beta group of users with preview access to collect feedback, then seamlessly transitioning the entire campus in time for the fall semester. “We launched very, very quickly,” Stonesifer said. “It went off without a hitch.”
The smooth rollout set the stage for a new level of student engagement, with student feedback notably different from previous tech launches. “Students don’t usually speak up unless they’re upset,” said Nielsen. “Launching the new my.lasalle marked the first time our team ever received positive feedback on our campus technology.”
Features With Real Impact
Building on the early success of my.lasalle, Stonesifer and Nielsen focused on further refining student digital experiences through features like:
- Tasks and Pathways, which immediately gave the team new insights into student behavior. Starting last fall, Nielsen created a technology checklist covering basic tasks, from connecting to campus WiFi to setting up account access to downloading the mobile app. “Before, we never knew if students kept up with their checklist,” he explained. Leveraging Tasks and seeing completion rates right in my.lasalle helped pinpoint where issues arose. Now, Nielsen is collaborating with the university’s Student Financial Services department to automate Banner balance updates and trigger Tasks for students needing financial aid counseling, further leveraging the platform’s Tasks capabilities.
- Announcements, which solved what Stonesifer described as a longtime mystery. “We always wondered what happened with communications in the old portal — it felt like a black hole,” she said. Now, with clear visibility into who sees announcements, notices and alerts, the team confirms targeted communications actually reach their intended audience.
- The Recipe Library deploys widgets quickly and easily — a crucial advantage for a lean team managing multiple priorities. “Getting widgets up and running takes minimal effort — it’s a low technical hurdle and documentation makes the process clear,” reported Nielsen.
- And Roles and access controls keep user experiences intuitive, clean and relevant. Customizable quick links and other menu items ensure employees see employee-specific content, while students see resources and tools tailored to them.
Up Next: Employee Engagement and Mobile Adoption
While my.lasalle currently focuses heavily on engaging and informing current students, both Stonesifer and Nielsen remain excited about expanding employee engagement through Pathify’s Hub Experience tools. “Another priority involves increasing the number of users installing the mobile app,” Stonesifer shared.
Since the start of the 2025-2026 academic year, mobile adoption metrics signal strong momentum — with iOS impressions, product page views and total downloads doubling compared to the same period last year.
What began as a race to replace an expiring system quickly turned into a catalyst for more effective campus engagement. With my.lasalle, Stonesifer and Nielsen built a strong foundation to expand and evolve the way its entire community connects.
About La Salle University
- Student Headcount: 4,000+
- Institution Type: Private university
- Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- Tech Stack: Ellucian Banner, Canvas, Softdocs, Rave
- Technology Consolidated into Pathify: Student portal, student groups & events tool
Founded in 1863, La Salle University is a private, Catholic institution located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. La Salle offers a transformative education that integrates practical experience with a strong liberal arts foundation, preparing students to lead lives of purpose, service and success. Learn more at lasalle.edu.