How Jacksonville State Broke Enrollment Records in Three of Four Years With Text

Download the Full Case Study

Lauren Findley, Director of Undergraduate Admissions at Jacksonville State University, puts it plainly: texting is one of the top three reasons for JSU’s recent enrollment growth. Between 2019 and 2022, JSU broke its enrollment record three times.

“We’ve had a lot of success in enrollment over the past three years, and I attribute Mongoose and communication as one of the top three reasons. Mongoose has had a huge impact on our enrollment success.”

Lauren Findley, Director of Undergraduate Admissions, Jacksonville State University

JSU is a regional public university in Alabama that served more than 9,500 students when it adopted Mongoose in 2019. It uses Mongoose Text across undergraduate admissions, dual enrollment, campus visits, and graduate recruitment.

Why Email and Calls Stopped Working

In 2018, JSU’s Undergraduate Admissions team noticed that students weren’t responding to email, phone calls weren’t working, and enrollment was declining. To enroll more students each cycle, the team needed a better way to reach them.

How JSU Built Texting Into Its Ellucian Recruit Workflows

JSU turned to Mongoose Text and connected it to Ellucian Recruit. Recruit checks for active campaigns and triggers the right text reply automatically, so students get timely, relevant information without extra staff time. Data syncs between the two in real time, and the team tracks every campaign in Mongoose.

“Mongoose is easy to work with. Recruit is a robust CRM system. Learning to work with it was a much bigger hurdle than working with Mongoose APIs.”

Shaun Stancil, Systems Administrator, Jacksonville State University

“Even though auto responses are triggered through our CRM, I can go back into Mongoose and track campaign success, student engagement, and response rates.”

Roxanne Stancil, then Coordinator for Recruitment and Technology, Jacksonville State University

Results: Record Enrollment Growth

Records in 2019, 2021, and 2022

Enrollment grew from 1,493 students in 2019 to 1,941 in 2022. It dipped to 1,313 during the pandemic in 2020, then set new records in 2021 and 2022.

• 2019: 1,493 students
• 2020: 1,313 students
• 2021: 1,818 students
• 2022: 1,941 students

“We broke records for enrollment in 2019, 2021, and 2022. In 2020, we even came out better than most.”

Roxanne Stancil

293 Percent More Texts

As texting became part of everyday admissions work, volume grew from 125,374 texts in 2019 to 493,096 in 2022, a 293 percent increase.

Texts That Save Staff Time

Moving from phone calls to texts drastically reduced staff workload while making students more responsive.

“With the data in our CRM, we identified students at risk of being voided from classes. Instead of calling, we sent a text, which led to more student action while saving hours of staff time.”

Lauren Findley

A Playlist That Fought Summer Melt

JSU also uses texting creatively to fight summer melt. In one standout campaign, students texted in their favorite songs, and the team compiled them into a Spotify playlist for more than 500 students, building excitement and community before arrival.

What Other Admissions Teams Can Take From JSU

Let your CRM do the triggering. When Recruit decides who should get which text and Mongoose sends it, staff spend their time on the students who need a person. Then use texts for the moments when email is too slow, like students about to be dropped from classes, and for the fun that keeps admitted students excited. For more on summer, see why melt is rarely a messaging problem, and compare your reply rates with these admissions texting benchmarks and FAQs.

JSU has kept building on this work. Its graduate admissions team gets a 21 percent response rate on inquiry texts. Other admissions teams have seen strong results, too: OSU-Cascades lifted its contact rate from 36 to 57 percent by pairing texts with calls, and Kettering University increased deposits 60 percent.

Looking Ahead

JSU plans to expand automation and personalization in Mongoose to support both recruitment and retention, and to keep refining its data-driven campaigns. The university has kept growing, too, and in fall 2025 it surpassed 10,000 students for the first time.

Download the Full Case Study

For a two-page summary of JSU’s results to share with your admissions team, download the Jacksonville State University case study (PDF).

Want to see what Text could do for your enrollment growth? Book a demo.

Frequently Asked Questions

How did Jacksonville State University grow enrollment with texting?

JSU connected Mongoose Text to Ellucian Recruit in 2019, so Recruit triggers the right text automatically. Enrollment grew from 1,493 students in 2019 to 1,941 in 2022, with records in 2019, 2021, and 2022.

How does Mongoose work with Ellucian Recruit at JSU?

Recruit checks for active campaigns and triggers the right text reply automatically, data syncs in real time, and staff track campaign success, engagement, and response rates in Mongoose.

How much did JSU’s texting volume grow?

From 125,374 texts in 2019 to 493,096 in 2022, a 293 percent increase.

How does texting save admissions staff time?

When JSU identified students at risk of being voided from classes, it texted them instead of calling. Lauren Findley says that led to more student action while saving hours of staff time.

How did JSU use texting to fight summer melt?

In one campaign, students texted in their favorite songs, and JSU compiled them into a Spotify playlist for more than 500 students to build excitement before arrival.