Case Study: Sam Houston State University streamlines advising and registration with Ellucian Smart Plan

Ellucian Smart Plan Automates and Simplifies Advising and Registration at Sam Houston State University

Sam Houston State University, a public four-year institution in Huntsville, Texas, was struggling with time-consuming manual advising and degree planning. Advisors had to build plans by hand, and students often lacked a clear view of their path to graduation, which contributed to registration issues and delays. Ellucian’s Smart Plan was chosen to help simplify and modernize the university’s academic planning process.

With Ellucian Smart Plan, SHSU automated personalized degree planning, enabled students to register directly from their plans, and gave advisors real-time visibility into course availability and plan changes. The university reported smoother registration, reduced advisor workload, stronger support for at-risk students, and improved student satisfaction scores, which rose from a 3.0–3.8 range to 4.1–4.4 on a five-point scale, with some weeks reaching 5.0.

Sam Houston State University

Megan St. Vigne

Associate Vice President of Enrollment Services