Most institutions grapple with a portal problem — a messy list of links. This outdated approach forces students to hunt for information across disparate systems and results in a fragmented, frustrating journey. The traditional portal fails to meet modern expectations for personalized, real-time interaction — driving institutions to search for a more integrated, student-centric solution.
During the 2026 Pathify Customer Summit, leaders from John Brown University, Seton Hill University and Weber State University detailed a strategic shift toward a Campus Experience Platform (CXP).
The CXP provides a unified experience layer which integrates with data and systems across the institution to drive a personalized, frictionless journey for every student. Still, a CXP maintains power only through the governance supporting it. Without a plan, even technology built for engagement risks becoming a disorganized dumping ground for links. Success requires intentional, strategic, cross-functional governance, treating the platform as a living product rather than a completed project. The real work begins after launch.
Check out four actionable takeaways from higher ed leaders on building a sustainable governance model.
1. Establish Guardrails, Not Gates
A true CXP philosophy empowers the people closest to the student — Advising, Financial Aid and Student Life — to manage their own digital touchpoints. Rene Eborn, CIO and Associate VP of Weber State University, prioritizes institutional agility by establishing clear “guardrails, not gates” for campus-wide collaboration.
“I never want IT to function as the bottleneck. We partner with functional business leaders through a federated model where we empower power users in areas like student affairs and financial aid to manage their own areas, while IT maintains the infrastructure and the ‘plumbing.’ Having a cross-functional governance team remains vital when you work at a large scale,” Eborn shared.
Instead of IT managing every update, this approach equips teams and functional business leaders to move fast within their own areas of expertise, while IT maintains the platform’s core infrastructure.
Julie Gumm, Chief Marketing and Communication Officer at John Brown University, shared how JBU splits duties between marketing content and technical integrations, creating a sustainable, shared model for success. While marketing oversees content strategy, ITS drives enhancements to widgets and tools.
Melissa Alsing, Chief Information Officer at Seton Hill University, outlined a centralized model which employs advisory committees to vet new requests. This federated model helps institutions avoid the risk of “shadow IT” — distributing content ownership to functional experts while IT retains control of the underlying architecture.
2. Shift From Repository to Engagement Engine
With the implementation of a CXP, institutions drive a strategic shift from a passive information repository into a dynamic engagement engine. JBU identified friction points and built specific data integrations or widgets to solve them. In a recent upgrade, JBU launched Pathify’s AI Agent, alongside a complete re-evaluation of the campus’s content and communication strategy. Identifying high-friction student tasks enabled them to implement pre-built integrations to create a seamless experience where students complete tasks directly within the Hub.
Alsing shared plans to increase student engagement by moving all campus groups and clubs into Pathify Communities. The result of close collaboration between IT and Student Life, the consolidation of two apps into one further transformed the platform from a static list of links into a personalized engagement tool. Students log into the platform to see key resources, but they stay to form meaningful connections with their peers, transforming a list of resources into an action-oriented hub.
3. Adopt a Product Management Mindset
Launch day marked a beginning, not a finish line. Three to six months post-implementation, a flood of feedback arrived. Eborn described this phase as a critical pivot point. New users offered feedback and requested unplanned features.
“You want to have that ideation, but there’s also a challenge of triaging the flood of information, and categorizing it in a meaningful way that can help you move the product forward and keep the platform lively and engaging for the users,” Eborn said. She swapped her project management hat for a product management mindset, recognizing a CXP required stewardship rather than a one-time setup.
Alsing navigated this transition through an expedited governance model. She utilized student and staff advisory committees to weigh complex requests and developed proofs of concept on a six-week timeline to refine the student experience. At John Brown University, Gumm countered the post-launch slump by centralizing content ownership. This forced departments to address internal needs directly within the platform, migrating student-employment forms, faculty handbooks and departmental policy documents off the public website. By shifting these operational resources behind a single login, Gumm encouraged staff to maintain engagement long after the initial go-live excitement faded.
“We had some beta tester students and student ambassadors who helped test things and train other students. But, one of the reasons we chose Pathify — and one of my goals in this project — was moving all of our internally focused content off of our public website so it could become solely focused on recruiting, alumni and donor engagement,” Gumm noted.
Maintaining platform vitality requires a permanent shift from project checklists to long-term product roadmaps, utilizing student advisory boards to vet new feature requests. This move toward intentional oversight establishes the framework for a more analytical approach to the student experience.
4. Practice Data-Driven Empathy
Data-driven empathy, the practice of using engagement metrics to identify and eliminate student frustration points within the digital experience, transforms the way these leaders viewed student frustration. Beyond simple login counts, the primary measure of success lies in the reduction of friction.
Eborn prioritized an emotion-free, data-driven decluttering process for the Hub. Her team identified widgets with minimal engagement — such as zero clicks over several months — through Pathify’s backend analytics. This approach treated stagnant content as clutter and prioritized its removal to maintain clarity. Gumm and Alsing synchronized their hygiene sprints with the summer months. Gumm reminded departments to treat content management as a project during the off-season, and Alsing refreshed information for incoming students.
All three leaders relied on student workers to provide a “student eye” during audits. Gumm utilized interns to edit content, while Alsing described students as huge assets who pointed out incorrect data — ensuring the Hub answered student questions before they reached the help desk.
These leaders maintained useful, relevant platforms by practicing data-driven empathy. Metrics tracking specific actions, like registration button clicks and support ticket resolutions, provided valuable insights into student behavior. JBU deleted 65% of their public pages, freeing up Registrar staff for the human side of student advising. Meanwhile, Seton Hill consolidated unsustainable homegrown systems into Pathify, eliminating the need for custom development work. And Eborn utilized sentiment surveys and design thinking to capture student feedback, shifting the focus toward human connection.
The Path Forward
Scaling a CXP requires intentional governance and a permanent product mindset. Leaders like Rene Eborn, Melissa Alsing and Julie Gumm proved transformation required more than technical installation. These institutions shifted from adrenaline-fueled launch mode toward sustainable, data-driven operations. By prioritizing the student voice and establishing clear guardrails, they turned stagnant link repositories into dynamic engagement engines — demonstrating how institutions create lasting transformation when they treat the digital campus as a living product, rather than a completed project.
Curious to hear from the leaders transforming higher ed? Watch the 2026 Pathify Customer Summit session recordings here.