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Copiah-Lincoln Community College: Improving Campuswide Communications
7/24/2003
One of Mississippi's oldest community colleges, Copiah-Lincoln, had been using homegrown software applications to collect data on students, grades, and financial aid since the 1970s and were now obsolete. For many years, Copiah-Lincoln had an eye on improving the manner in which each member of the campus community would be able to access need-appropriate information while communicating with one another across constituent-defined lines.
Established in 1928, Copiah-Lincoln has continued to grow in size and prestige. The college now occupies a prominent position in the state's educational system with a district enrollment of more than 3,000 and a physical plant valued at more than $35 million. Copiah-Lincoln faced the daunting challenge of moving the college deeper into the 21st century. The school needed to find a way to dramatically upgrade the on-campus computer network in order to show students, faculty and administrators that it was committed to improving cross-campus efficiencies—this was its No. 1 goal. The college student of today is well versed in modern technology and most, if not all, own cell phones, palm pilots, laptop computers, and MP3 players.
The technologically savvy student of today made it essential that Copiah-Lincoln choose a software solution that was sophisticated enough to appeal to that group, yet intuitive enough so that faculty and administrators would not be intimidated by the new software.
Seamless Integration
"In searching for the software solution that would benefit each member
of the campus community, Copiah-Lincoln chose the Jenzabar Internet Campus [JIC]
product suite for its intelligent business solution package that can seamlessly
link all aspects of the college campus, be that of a student, faculty member,
an administrator, or a senior executive," explains Dr. Howell Garner, president
of Copiah-Lincoln Community College. "Jenzabar provided Copiah Lincoln
with a total campus solution of both front- and back-end products, eliminating
the need to use multiple products from numerous providers who specialize in
one or the other."
JIC is a Web-based software suite that seamlessly integrates each end of a college campus, from students to administrators to faculty, delivering role-based access to administrative and academic information. The JIC suite treats each constituency as an entity with different needs, and by way of Jenzabar's many customer relationship management (CRM) portlets, applies role-appropriate customized information. For example, using CRM Student, a student can easily view grade records, class Web sites, housing information, and financial statements. Admissions officers can compile and manage numerous applications from potential students with the Admissions portlet. In addition, a student advisor's portlet provides the necessary tools to assist students, such as student profile information and degree auditing. Each portlet provides information and tools appropriate to the user's role on campus, yet allows sharing of information between various departments.
"In addition to improving campuswide communications at Copiah-Lincoln, the single largest benefit of working with Jenzabar is that its products have given students, faculty, and administrators both easier and timelier access to information," says Dan Dykes, director of information technology at Copiah-Lincoln.
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