Initiatives

Slate Implementation

Slate — Oregon State University’s CRM system for enrollment management

Designed and developed exclusively for higher education, Slate is a single, unified customer relationship management system that supports the pre-enrollment process and student experience from recruitment through orientation. This CRM system is used to manage all prospect, inquiry, recruitment and admission functions at Oregon State University as of fall 2021.

Slate is used by more than 1,500  colleges and universities worldwide. Among the top 50 universities in the United States, 48 use Slate.

Key Features and Benefits

  • Complete access to prospective student data, records and touch points at Oregon State, with the ability to manage recruits at the college and departmental levels.
  • Automated, data-driven communications including print, email and text messages (charges apply).
  • Real-time reporting functionality with detailed communication analytics. 
  • Email address deliverability and validation. 
  • Support for Google Analytics and other analytics platforms with JavaScript APIs for registering page views and conversion events.
  • Event management, registration and communications for campus tours, information sessions, admitted student days and more using one straightforward system.
  • Easy-to-use tools for leadership and management roles without the need for developers.
  • Unlimited site licensing for participating members.

Slate Contacts at OSU

Slate FAQs

Slate is a CRM tool that gives Oregon State and each college a single system to manage prospective student information from the initial point of contact, through the application, admission and enrollment process.

Slate allows Oregon State to manage interactions with prospective students between recruitment and advising teams, direct marketing campaigns, application processing, events organization and registration. Slate improves the student admission experience with a more intuitive interface and a single portal for submitting required documents.

Using Slate, Oregon State and college recruiters can create automated, sequential communications to target specific prospective students based on what’s known about them, such as interests, potential majors or location. Slate population filters allow users to configure messages to send dynamically based on when individual records meet certain criteria. These campaigns can mix and match various channels of communications, and a single campaign may combine email, text and print messages.

Slate generates a variety of reports to inform recruitment and enrollment management decision-making. In addition to standard data points such as opens, clicks, bounces and opt-outs, Slate can generate reports that capture granular-level information about the device, location and other details that allow for enhanced tracking. Slate also provides email address deliverability and validation information to determine why particular messages may have bounced or skipped in transit.

Slate is much more efficient and integrated compared to previous CRM tools used at Oregon State. It allows all university and college recruitment efforts to be consolidated into one easy-to-use system. It allows everyone involved in student recruitment and admissions to have easy access to the same information at the same time.

Slate offers a better experience for them as well. All prospective student interactions go through our user-friendly Beaver Basecamp portal, including the OSU admissions application or the Common App. Slate also personalizes the process based on their academic interests, location and other criteria.

Yes. Enrollment Management has worked with partners in the offices of Financial Aid and Scholarships to integrate student information into Banner for processing in their offices

Slate helps the university reduce costs through improved productivity. This increased efficiency allows recruiting and admissions staff to spend more time on the high-value, high-touch work of interacting with prospective students. Slate improves targeting to better reach and build relationships with prospective students. And an attractive, easy-to-use admissions portal makes Oregon State more appealing to prospective students.

Slate Data and Process Governance

  • All communications to prospective undergraduate students are conducted through Slate.
  • Data for prospective students as of Fall 2021 is only available through Slate.
  • While certain business needs will necessitate the use of data outside of Slate, under no circumstances will data be provided to circumvent communications outside of Slate.
  • Using Slate to its fullest potential requires keeping data, communications, touch points and other attributes related to recruitment and admissions contained in one integrated system.