Fostering a sense of belonging represents one of higher ed’s most critical retention strategies. However, most institutions undermine this opportunity from the start — asking students and admins to build community, find connections, access resources and discover events across a maze of disconnected systems. When finding community requires institutional knowledge and multiple logins, true connection becomes an afterthought.
Meanwhile, Generation Alpha — a cohort that’s only ever known a globally connected, gamified, AI-driven world — arrives on college campuses in three short years, expecting the same experience they get from every other part of their digital lives. The gap between expectations and institutional reality continues widening…fast.
At Pathify’s CX Summit, we sat down with leaders and institutions tackling this gap head-on, moving to more connected experiences and seeing the impact on both experience and retention.
The High Costs of Disconnected Digital Experiences
Student Affairs leaders face clear urgency: Disconnected digital experiences directly undermine the belonging and engagement strategies that drive retention.
- Pathify’s 2025 Student Digital Experience Survey revealed 95% of students desire a single, centralized platform, yet most navigate countless browser tabs just to complete basic daily tasks, such as finding course schedules, advisor information or registration deadlines.
- Non-centralized digital platforms cause stress “often” or “very often” at over twice the rate of unified platforms — with nearly half of students using non-centralized platforms saying this stress affects their ability to learn or succeed.
- The reputational stakes run high, with 54% of students “likely” to share their digital experiences with prospective students.
Fragmented tech stacks don’t just frustrate current students — they’re potentially damanging prospective student perception and outreach, too.
Unifying Student & Admin Experiences
At Montgomery County Community College (MC3) in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania, community, clubs and organizations lived in a separate platform from the college’s legacy portal. “It felt very disjointed and difficult to navigate; students didn’t know how to find information. It took them six, seven clicks to get a list of all our clubs,” explained Angela Cavaliere, Assistant Director of Digital Experience. For commuter students juggling work and family obligations, the friction appeared even more painful. “We became tired of sending already-busy students into multiple platforms,” Cavaliere added.
The administrative burden mirrors the student experience, with academic advisors managing the same chaos — toggling between systems and logins to view transfer credits, major requirements, financial aid, housing and course data. Shana Holman, Head of Alliances at Pathify, noted, “The entire experience and lifecycle of the student and the staff member remain absolutely critical and interwoven.”
Creating Paths for Connection
When the pandemic forced Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, to go virtual for the Fall 2020 semester, they launched a digital community platform “as a way to help engage students,” shared Erica Zwicker, Director of Communications, Student Affairs. The results were immediate: Students began interacting, connecting and engaging in ways that hadn’t been possible.
The real transformation came when Dalhousie integrated their digital communities within their wider ecosystem, powered by Pathify. “Students are our customers. They’re paying us to be on our campus, and we should make it as simple as possible for them,” Zwicker emphasized. “We wanted the digital experience to be integrated and help increase a feeling of belonging.”
At Dalhousie, students who form community early on prove significantly more likely to continue, Zwicker noted. Dalhousie’s Communities platform establishes multiple avenues for critical early engagement. While the exact relationship between digital community and retention continues to be studied, the platform “definitely provides a lot of pathways to form connections,” said Zwicker.
Communities in Practice
Both MC3 and Dalhousie leverage Pathify to automatically assign users to relevant groups and events through stackable, unlimited Roles, enabling highly relevant, personalized experiences at scale. MC3 creates groups for specific academic cohorts, parents and interest-based communities, while Dalhousie builds pathways for incoming students to connect with peers and student ambassadors before they arrive on campus.
The platform connects all users with everything they may need — updates, announcements, assignments, tasks, holds, campus community — in one place. “When a platform connects a student with everything they need…it’s a proxy for student success,” said Holman. And perhaps most importantly, digital belonging isn’t just about access but empowerment. As Holman added: “Give students a place to take agency.”
5 Lessons to Drive Community and Belonging
Both MC3 and Dalhousie demonstrated that reducing digital friction remains key to increased engagement and retention. Their experiences and outcomes offer a practical roadmap for institutions ready to build (or enhance) digital belonging, meet students where they are and implement technology designed for scalability and longevity.
Create Feedback Loops
Both MC3 and Dalhousie emphasized the importance of collecting ongoing feedback from students. Digital strategy should evolve based on what users need — not what administrators assume they want.
Automate Community Assignment at Scale
Don’t rely on students to “opt in” to groups and belonging. Use already-available data (major, cohort, residence, etc.) from core systems (SIS, LMS, CRM, etc.) to connect students with relevant communities, resources and groups automatically.
Prepare (Now) for Generation Alpha
Gen Alpha expects technology to perform ultra-predictively, function seamlessly cross-platform and deliver a consumer-grade experience. Although the bar remains high, institutions have a three-year runway to act. Institutions moving quickly to replace disconnected, clunky systems with intuitive digital experiences will gain an advantage in serving and retaining the next generation of students.
Build a Single, Trusted Source of Truth
Don’t ask students to rebuild their social habits — ensure your launch strategy migrates existing clubs, groups and orgs from legacy platforms. Transferring established communities into a single, moderated platform creates an official, trusted source of truth that meets students where they are.
Prioritize Proactive Communication
Shift from expecting students to hunt for information to using technology to inform them exactly what they need to do. Surfacing critical, time-sensitive tasks (like registration deadlines, academic forms, etc.) reduces the real-world consequences of missed information (such as delayed graduation, dropped classes, etc.). Prioritize student agency — turning passive users into active, engaged community members capable of managing their own success.
The Future of Digital Belonging
Integrated digital communities represent a crucial infrastructure for student success. Institutions like MC3 and Dalhousie University enable fully connected experiences — meeting students where they are, building experiences that won’t feel outdated in a few years and creating the kind of belonging and culture keeping students engaged and on track to success.
Want to see more? Explore the full sessions from Pathify’s 2025 CX Summit:
- All In, All Connected: Transforming Student Communities Management
- The 3 Year Countdown: Why Gen Alpha Will Force Higher Ed’s Digital Reckoning