How Morgan State University modernized orientation registration in 6 weeks with CampusESP for Student Orientation
Morgan State has been using CampusESP for Student Enrollment and Family Communication since 2019. Fast forward to the 2025 CampusESP Summit, when the Morgan State team heard that some colleges were using CampusESP to register students for orientation.
Like many institutions, Morgan State powered orientation with a patchwork of homegrown systems and outdated technology. As their enrollment grew, they needed a modern system built for today’s students.
Based on years of trusting CampusESP for family engagement, the Morgan State team felt confident that CampusESP for Student Orientation was the system that would allow them to achieve ambitious enrollment goals and get students set up for a successful transition into the institution.
With CampusESP for Student Orientation, Morgan State is seeing quicker registrations, fewer student errors, and an admin experience puts the power in their hands without IT intervention - a win for students and staff!
From outdated, legacy systems to a central all-in-one system
For years, Morgan State had used Ellucian Banner to process orientation registrations - which involved custom pages created by IT, multiple platforms students needed to juggle, and a disjointed payment system. The outdated registration process led to student confusion, errors, and administrative inefficiencies.
The registration experience sets the tone for the student’s time at Morgan State… and this system was designed for students of the past, not for today’s tech-savvy incoming students.
When Richard Kearney, New Student Programs Coordinator, and Chevaun Whitman, Director of Bear Essentials One-Stop Student Services Center, heard about CampusESP for Student Orientation, they saw an opportunity to modernize and simplify the orientation registration process, using a system they already knew and loved for families.
Kearney shared, “It was imperative that we had a system that could serve our growing enrollment without errors and confusion, but we also needed a team who would work with us to make sure that the transition actually served our students well. We got both - a great system and a wonderful team of partners - with CampusESP.”
Implementing CampusESP for Student Orientation in 6 weeks
After a smooth 6-week implementation, Morgan State launched registration to incoming Spring 2026 students. As part of this transition, they also made orientation registration synonymous with confirmation of enrollment, simplifying two separate steps in the enrollment process into one.
Admitted students are now automatically imported into CampusESP from Banner and receive personalized nudges to register for orientation. Since initial launch, incoming Fall 2026 students have also started using CampusESP, seting up for a smooth transition to Morgan State.
The results?
2x increase in orientation registrations (and enrollment confirmations) year-over-year: Morgan State has already registered 265 students for orientation - more than double their numbers at the end of February last year.
Decrease in registration errors: Even with more students registering quickly, Morgan State is seeing fewer students running into issues compared to when they used Banner.
Fewer calls and emails from students: Both Whitman and Kearney have noted a decrease in calls and emails to their offices with questions/issues to report.
“Working with the CampusESP team has been phenomenal. They’re responsive, insightful, intuitive, and they spent time really getting to understand our processes and our students, which has been so important. We need to trust partners with our brand, and CampusESP always makes me confident in our decision to trust them with our brand.”
Whitman shared some insights about their experience so far: “Working with the CampusESP team has been phenomenal. They’re responsive, insightful, intuitive, and they spent time really getting to understand our processes and our students, which has been so important. We need to trust partners with our brand, and CampusESP always makes me confident in our decision to trust them with our brand.”
What can CampusESP for Student Orientation do?
CampusESP for Student Orientation offers a variety of features to support student transitions and success, including:
Orientation registration forms that segment session date options based on student type, college, or other indicators and allow you to collect the information you need about guest attendance
Payment integration so students can submit their registration fees in the same step as their session selection
AI-powered, personalized communications across text messages, email, and a web and mobile portal experience
Checklists, ensuring no tasks fall through the cracks
Learning Modules to guide students through important information virtually
Event Groups to help you split students into their small groups before their in-person orientation
Event Check-In with individualized QR codes to support day-of attendance tracking and reporting
Data integration with your systems to get registration data into your SIS/CRM
For this year’s students, Morgan State focused on rolling out the orientation registration form, with payment integration, event check-in, and data integration with Banner, but they are looking forward to implementing Checklists in CampusESP soon to help students track and complete all their next steps!