From Technical Debt to Strategic Investment: Seton Hill University Saves Estimated $60,000 with Pathify’s Campus Experience Platform
From Technical Debt to Strategic Investment:
Seton Hill University Saves Estimated $60,000 with Pathify’s Campus Experience Platform
Quick Summary:
Seton Hill University replaced its patchwork of student portals and disjointed systems with Pathify’s Campus Experience Platform (CXP) to create a unified digital hub (MySHU), addressing internal technical debt and a lack of key features like a native mobile app.
MySHU centralized information and community access, leveraging Pathify’s capabilities, including secure single sign-on, a mobile app, digital Communities, a unified calendar, and forms for efficient, centralized workflows like travel waivers and club registration.
The consolidation led to significant results, including an estimated $60,000 in savings and efficiency gains, a focus on cross-campus collaboration, and a strengthened sense of community among students.
Seton Hill University, a top Catholic liberal arts university in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, helps students find their best path forward. However, students struggled to find critical information and resources due to a patchwork of tools, including several student portals. Managing disjointed systems drained the IT team’s time and resources, and despite using multiple tools, the university lacked a mobile app and critical built-in accessibility features.
Losing key staff members further exacerbated the difficulty of maintaining multiple portals. “We reached a point where building things in-house was no longer sustainable. We wanted a better system to support students, as well as a collaborative partnership with a vendor,” explained Melissa Alsing, Chief Information Officer at Seton Hill University. Leaving the status quo behind, Alsing and team considered how to build a holistic tech ecosystem equipped to withstand staffing changes and adapt to the institution’s evolving needs.
Adopting Holistic Solutions
Alsing’s team evaluated several options, such as the portal included with Jenzabar JX/One, but found they required significant resources to implement and maintain — and they lacked key capabilities like robust integrations and mobile accessibility. Seton Hill chose Pathify’s Campus Experience Platform (CXP) for its out-of-the-box integration framework, native mobile app and flexible customization — paired with a low technical lift. “We had a lot of internal technical debt before Pathify. Continuing with the status quo required increasing our budget spend because the existing infrastructure required significant resources to maintain,” said Alsing. “Instead, we chose to streamline our tech stack and completely transform the user experience — while saving budget.”
One Login, Every Tool
With Pathify, Seton Hill transformed its existing intranet, MySHU, into a unified digital hub for the entire campus community. MySHU centralized information, tools and community into one streamlined platform — transforming a disjointed tech stack into a cohesive, strategic ecosystem. “We pulled all campus information and FAQs into MySHU. Students no longer hunt through multiple systems to find answers or complete tasks,” Alsing emphasized. “And with Pathify’s mobile app, students now access information quickly and easily on their preferred device.”
MySHU leverages the full breadth of Pathify’s CXP capabilities, including a mobile app for on-the-go access, Communities for digital groups, a unified calendar, and forms for efficient workflows. “We heavily utilize forms for travel waivers and other important documents. Now, instead of every coach or professor handling that on their own, it’s all centralized in one place,” explained Alsing. Student organizations also use forms to register clubs, track rosters, store governing documents, and communicate with members. With secure single sign-on, students access a personalized dashboard without needing to switch between multiple logins and tools.
Cross-Campus Collaboration
Alsing brought together Marketing, Student Life and other teams to collaborate on creating an engaging end-user experience, gathering feedback from stakeholders across the campus community to maximize MySHU’s impact. “Collaboration helped colleagues outside IT to rethink their use of technology. It encouraged our IT team to focus more deeply on how we engage the end user,” Alsing reflected. “Broadening the project beyond IT transformed this from a student portal to a true campus platform.”
Alsing explained while IT built and maintains the platform, Student Life activated the full potential of MySHU. “We are continuously evolving our use of Pathify to create a more seamless and intuitive student journey,” she explained. “When Student Life envisions a new use case — like athletic forms or event management — we mock it up. Because of the pace of Pathify’s innovation, we continue adapting new features to amplify the platform’s value.”
Leading with Community
Alsing described how close partnership between IT and Student Life enabled Seton Hill to migrate student groups from a standalone app into Pathify Communities — simplifying the student experience and eliminating a separate system and contract. “While the MySHU project started as a search for a portal solution, it quickly became much more,” Alsing emphasized. “Pathify’s Communities functionality vastly extends the impact of MySHU — both by improving user experience and enabling us to consolidate extraneous tools into Pathify.”
Digital groups create a safe, managed environment for students to connect and engage — especially crucial for an institution focused on community and service. “Our Lost and Found group is a simple but powerful example of the impact of Communities. Before, lost items either went through campus safety or were never found. Now, anyone can post in the group and return items to one another within hours,” Alsing remarked. “Students help each other out and really build a sense of community and support.”
Pathify Communities also enabled Seton Hill to modernize on-campus events, which previously required time-consuming manual work. Now, attendees utilize MySHU to discover, register and check in for events, while easy-to-use QR codes enable hosts to track attendance — transforming a once clunky process into a seamless experience.
Cost Savings and Efficiency Gains
Seton Hill’s improvements led to significant cost savings and increased efficiency. “By consolidating tools and maintenance into Pathify, we’ve estimated $60,000 in savings, while reclaiming hours of staff time through efficiency gains,” Alsing remarked. “Ultimately, the real goal remains to impact the student experience by giving them everything they need in one modern, personalized platform.”
A parent of two college students herself, Alsing understands the frustration students experience when forced to hunt through different systems with multiple logins to complete tasks. “The struggle is real,” Alsing said. “MySHU minimizes frustration and confusion — allowing students to focus on their success.” Students reported positive feedback about the new platform, citing key features like robust search functionality and the modern, personalized interface. Alsing and team continue exploring new ways to enhance the student experience, with IT leveraging student workers to help monitor how the campus community responds to new changes and features.
A Robust Platform for the Future
Looking to the future, Alsing is eager to leverage new Communities features like co-curricular transcripts and finance management capabilities, as well as strategically expanding access to parents — further extending the impact of MySHU. “Higher ed faces real challenges, and those often feel overwhelming,” Alsing remarked. “Partnering with Pathify allowed us to enhance the student experience while expanding access to parents and other stakeholders — making meaningful changes to our technology and campus experience, without years of implementation or added costs.” By consolidating multiple fragmented systems into Pathify’s unified Campus Experience Platform, Seton Hill transformed technical debt into strategic advantage — streamlining workflows, reclaiming valuable staff time and delivering a modern, cohesive digital experience.
About Seton hill University
Seton Hill University is a nationally recognized Catholic liberal arts university in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, rooted in the tradition of the Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill. Following the vision of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton, Seton Hill welcomes students of all backgrounds and faith traditions to engage in a rigorous education that will prepare them well for their chosen field of study and a deeper understanding of their purpose and calling in the world. Learn more at setonhill.edu
