A decade of partnership, purpose, and promise
A few weeks ago, we had the privilege of honoring Lathes Towns at Tarleton State as a member of the “CampusESP Decade Club”. She’s been using our platform for ten years.
That moment means more to me than you might realize.
From the start, we set out to build a culture of customer support that exceeds expectations. We knew that most of our users—at colleges and universities across the country—aren’t primarily tech people. Their passion is helping students and families. We simply provide tools and support to let them focus on that.
“Customers are everything” (one of CampusESP’s values)
Lathes Towns with the CampusESP crew, March 2018
It seems almost surreal now, but Tarleton State was our first customer. Since then, we’ve grown to partner with over 450 institutions (and counting).
When I launched CampusESP, I was struck by how much people like Lathes care, how much they do, and how many families they reach. Yet they often had limited support…and even less funding. It puzzled me.
So I investigated.
I visited 14 colleges and universities, surveyed over 7,000 parents, and even sat down with dozens of students and families in person. One of those conversations was at Tarleton.
I’ll never forget meeting a junior in Tarleton’s Rodeo program. He strolled in wearing a cowboy hat, a belt buckle bigger than my head, and wrists thicker than my biceps. I was in a sport coat, city-slicker style. It was an awkward moment. I tentatively asked him:
“Tell me about how your parents support you in college.”
He answered without hesitation:
“I talk to them every day. They got me here. I want to make them proud.”
Parent involvement is a generational shift
Lathes Towns in her office at Tarleton State, sporting a CampusESP Decade Club varsity jacket and showing off her glowing neon Decade Club trophy.
That moment was a turning point for me. It was when I realized that my college-parent experience was not what college parents expect today. It’s here that the phrase “student success is family success” was born.
Students want—and often need—their families involved. CampusESP builds the tech and provides the team, so schools can scale that engagement. But at the end of the day, it’s the people at the institution (people like Lathes!) who make it happen. They bring the energy, the care, and the belief.
So, Lathes: thank you. Thank you for ten years of Tarleton purple, boundless energy, and your faith in family and parent engagement. You’re incredible. I’m honored that CampusESP has been part of your journey.
Why It Matters More Than Ever (with Fresh Data)
1. Families Want Frequent, Meaningful Communication
In our 2025 Family Survey, we surveyed 32,423 parents and family members. Among the insights: 43% of families interact with their students daily.
The survey also indicated that 77% of families say they want their student’s college to communicate with them at least once a week, a 7% jump from last year.
Yet only 46% of families feel satisfied with the opportunities they currently have to get involved on campus.
2. Parent Engagement Drives Retention and Success
In our recent research with ten universities, students whose families received progress alerts had on average 5.7% higher student retention than their average retention rates.
Moreover, for underrepresented students—Black, Hispanic, first-generation, and Pell-eligible—the impact was often even stronger.
3. Parent Engagement Influences Enrollment Outcomes
In a study of six CampusESP partner schools, students whose parents used our platform had on average 6% higher student yield rates.
Among parents in the top engagement quartile, their students were 3× more likely to enroll.
Want to know what else colleges families need? We asked over 32,000 of them and this is what they told us:
