Illinois State University (ISU), a CSM client since 2014 with over 20,000 students, is like many public institutions across the country, yet still has its unique terminology, institutional goals, and student demographics. Customized to their campus, ISU calls its CSM system “Hire-A-Redbird,” named after its mascot, it is a recognizable office on campus that plays a vital role in ensuring student success. With the support of their client manager, CSM became an integral part of ISU’s career services office from the very beginning.
In 2020, ISU’s career services office had new staff members join which required a revamp of their system. This, on top of an unexpected pandemic. While navigating new staff and moving campus operations virtually, ISU has continued to focus on institutional goals and cross-campus collaboration with the career services office by working with CSM to make a meaningful impact on their students from day one.
"Symplicity really helps set their schools up for success and will provide you with all the help you need. It’s a testament to how well Symplicity takes care of their clients."
Natalie Alexander
Associate Director of Employer Engagement, Illinois State University
Overhaul
In 2020, Natalie Alexander joined ISU as the Associate Director of Employer Engagement and dove into revamping the alumni network. While the institution had CSM, it wasn’t utilizing it to its full capacity. Yet, in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, many of Alexander’s initial priorities shifted and she instead tasked herself with overhauling the CSM system to its full potential.
For Alexander, that meant reconfiguring the over 22,000 employer contacts that existed within the system and verifying that they were still active employers. With so many contacts in one system, ISU was getting only a 2% open-rate on emails it was sending. By sending direct e-mail to its contacts with verification instructions, directly through CSM, Alexander was able to confirm quality, active contacts and get her open rate to 75-85%. “I think a pain point initially was people were not realizing the advancement that Symplicity was making to make things easier,” said Alexander. “We now have a team that is dedicated to following what Symplicity updates are and how they are changing and how we can use them.”
Data-Driven Cross Campus Collaboration
Like many institutions across the country, ISU is data-driven and subsequently relies on CSM to understand who their students are day after day, year after year. With the configurability and data stored within ISU’s CSM system, the career services office can support multiple schools and colleges on campus to better understand their students across a variety of academic disciplines. “All that data is ours and I don’t think you can have that with any other platform,” said Alexander. “If you have a data-driven campus, every decision that needs data we can provide it and it keeps our office stay relevant, giving us a seat at the table a lot of the time… CSM helps us make decisions and support other entities on campus.”
The data housed within ISU’s CSM system has also ensured the longevity of the institution and the career services office. ISU recently received an EDI (Equity, Diversity and Inclusion) grant which is funding geared towards supporting first-generation and low-income college students. Alexander and her team contacted faculty and let them know about the EDI grant and utilized CSM’s survey module to disseminate the information to the students who could apply for funding. Housing and distributing this information with CSM means that ISU can easily keep track of where students are going for internships, who needs support, and identify opportunities for students without having to house the information in a cumbersome spreadsheet. Additionally, ISU has utilized CSM’s Pathways module to track the success of its non-credit internship recipients.
CSM helps ISU’s career services office advocate for themselves by showing how the overall goals of the institution tie into career readiness. By being visible on campus with "Hire-A-Redbird” as a robust, configurable system the career service office ensures that students know where to turn to. “It shows that career services is a resource to them on how they can take the next step,” said Megan Patterson, ISU’s Internship Connection Coordinator.
"All that data is ours and I don’t think you can have that with any other platform. If you have a data-driven campus, every decision that needs data we can provide it and it keeps our office stay relevant, giving us a seat at the table a lot of the time… CSM helps us make decisions and support other entities on campus."
Natalie Alexander
Associate Director of Employer Engagement, Illinois State University
Endless Possibilities
Each morning, Patterson turns to CSM’s notes and emails to easily approve internships, schedule advising meetings, meet with students, approve employer and faculty accounts, and manage career fairs. “It’s my life,” said Paterson. “It’s the first thing I pull up every morning to really look at everything and I have it up all day.”
One of ISU’s most utilized features is the notes and messaging modules within CSM. For Patterson and Alexander, it means that communication with employers can all be documented to ensure that there is consistent communication between ISU and campus partners. Plus, with messaging, ISU’s career services office can better connect with alumni through ISU specific branding that they can control alongside their messaging and filter it out by which students or majors get specific communication to them.
Working alongside their client manager, ISU has been able to think creatively about what’s next. “It’s almost hard to remember all that you can do with it because there is just so much,” said Patterson. “I can’t imagine doing my job without CSM.” That said, ISU is looking to expand its use with CSM’s Pathways module, to create career readiness benchmarks for all students. “I can see the possibilities of all the things we can do with Pathways and using it in different ways for different constituents on campus,” said Alexander.
