Case Study: Ivy Tech Community College achieves scalable, personalized virtual student support and improved retention with Anthology

Reinventing the Student Service Experience

Ivy Tech Community College, Indiana’s largest public post‑secondary institution, faced budget cuts, rapid enrollment growth, and fragmented student services across 31 campuses that led to long hold times, high abandonment and inconsistent support that hurt enrollment and retention. To tackle this, Ivy Tech partnered with Anthology, deploying Anthology Student Services to create a centralized virtual Student Success/Help Center and accompanying self‑service tools.

Anthology delivered a multi‑faceted solution—an online self‑help portal (700+ knowledgebase articles), status trackers, live chat and extended support, proactive outreach, and interaction tracking—consolidating support under one phone number. The impact was measurable: average wait times dropped from 19 minutes to 30 seconds, abandonment fell from 49% to 1.46%, department transfer rates were dramatically reduced, and Ivy Tech saw smoother semester transitions and improved enrollments and retention, while staff were able to focus on higher‑value student needs.

Ivy Tech Community College

Jeff Fanter

Vice President Communications