“Summer melt” doesn’t just refer to the snowpack in the Colorado Rocky Mountains — it also describes students who commit to enrolling at CSU but withdraw before the first day of classes. Historically, CSU sees around 1,000 students melt each summer.
What’s particularly concerning is that nearly two-thirds of the melt population are those historically underrepresented at CSU. To tackle this challenge, Enrollment Council (EC) launched a comprehensive initiative aimed at improving the onboarding experience for all new students. The result was Ram Start.
Using the Collective Impact Model and engaging a broad network of stakeholders — including students, families, caregivers, and both internal and external campus partners — EC identified eight key focus areas to enhance. From the moment a student pays their enrollment deposit to their first day on campus, Ram Start is designed to make each step of the onboarding journey seamless, intuitive, and supportive.
Students have shared that the sheer volume of emails they receive can be overwhelming — and at times, even contradictory.
While email isn’t their preferred way to get information, students say they appreciate messages that are short, clear, and easy to scan, especially those with bulleted lists and direct subject lines. They also value being able to refer back to important emails when needed.
To improve clarity and coordination, the university has made streamlined communication a top priority. As part of this effort, the Enrollment Communicators Committee was formed.
Led by Heather Daniels and Jessica Hochreiter from the Office of Admissions, the Enrollment Communicators group at Colorado State University plays a vital role in aligning and amplifying enrollment messaging across campus. By bringing together communicators from key units—including Admissions, Financial Aid, the Registrar’s Office, Orientation & Transition Programs, Housing and the eight academic colleges plus Exploratory Studies—the group fosters collaboration and consistency in how we engage with prospective students. Through shared strategy, coordinated campaigns, and regular dialogue, Enrollment Communicators ensure that our outreach is timely, student-focused, and the perfect balance of transactional and transformational messaging for admitted students. This collective approach strengthens our ability to support students throughout their enrollment journey and reinforces CSU’s commitment to access, clarity, and connection.
Students asked for a simpler way to keep track of their onboarding tasks — and we listened.
Starting in summer 2024, the Ram Start Dashboard launched within RAMweb, giving students a clear, personalized view of what onboarding steps they’ve completed and what still needs attention.
Developed by the Office of Admissions systems staff in collaboration with the Registrar’s web development team, the dashboard is tailored to each student’s progress. It not only shows their current status but also provides direct links to additional resources and key departmental contacts for support.
Students indicated that they not only wanted to know exactly what they needed to get done, but also wanted to know about things they might choose to do. We also thought it important to offer prospective students insight into the onboarding process.
Dr. Kerry Nakasone-Wenzler, Orientation and Transition Programs, led the creation of the New Student Checklist by coordinating information from over 30 CSU departments. This public-facing checklist is housed on the website of Orientation and Transition Programs website.
It was no surprise that new students expressed a need for a single, centralized location for administrative support—one place, one phone number, one email. Continuing students echoed this sentiment, often describing the frustration of being redirected across campus when seeking help. In response, The Hub was created: a one-stop shop where Rams can efficiently take care of the business of being a student.
The Hub for Student Services, led by Director Jessica N. Rodriguez, is dedicated to enhancing the Ram student experience by providing a welcoming, student-centered space for essential services, including financial aid, billing, registration, student records, housing applications, and dining. Our cross-trained staff deliver holistic support across a wide range of enrollment services—via phone, email, and in-person—to ensure students receive consistent, knowledgeable assistance. While we cover a broad array of topics, our core focus remains exceptional, student-first service. The Hub is committed to empowering every student throughout their academic journey and beyond by fostering an inclusive and supportive environment.
Both students and our pre-collegiate partners have emphasized a key need: CSU faculty and staff must deepen their understanding of first-generation college students.
Historically, higher education has often taken a deficit-based approach, focusing on what first-gen students lack rather than recognizing and building on the strengths, resilience, and assets they bring. This mindset can unintentionally send the message that they don’t belong at CSU.
In response, a new workshop—Supporting Students with Intention & Dignity-Centered Practices—has been developed to address these concerns. The workshop is designed to:
Elevate the importance of belonging for all students
Equip faculty and staff with practical tools and strategies to support students where they are
Promote inclusive, dignity-centered practices across campus
This is one step toward creating a more welcoming and affirming environment for all students, especially those who are first in their family to attend college.
In today’s educational landscape, creating spaces where students, especially first-generation students, feel seen, valued, and supported is critical. This two-hour interactive workshop invites staff and educators to explore practical, dignity-centered strategies for fostering belonging and authentic connection in their daily interactions with students. Grounded in frameworks like Yosso’s Cultural Wealth Model, Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, Validation Theory and the 10 Elements of Dignity, we’ll reflect on our own experiences of belonging, build empathy through real-world case studies, and co-create sustainable practices that not only uplift students but also support staff well-being.
The Ram Start Guides Mentoring Program, designed and managed by Maira Oliva Hernandez, Program Director for the First-Gen Near-Peer Mentoring Program, is an eight-week summer initiative designed to support high-priority incoming Colorado State University (CSU) students as they transition to college life. Understanding that the summer before the first semester is a pivotal time for building confidence, preparation, and a sense of belonging, the program pairs each student with a trained peer mentor—current CSU students who offer valuable insight, lived experience, and campus knowledge.
Mentors serve as trusted guides, answering questions, sharing resources, and offering encouragement as students begin planning their academic and personal journey at CSU. Delivered virtually, the RamStart program is accessible to students across Colorado, removing geographic barriers to connection and support.
Through weekly mentorship and community-building opportunities, Ram Start empowers students to navigate their transition with confidence—equipping them with the tools, support, and relationships they need to thrive from day one.
Based on the success of the summer 2025 pilot of Ram Start Guides – 100% of the 50 students participating enrolled – the goal for next summer is to serve every student who could benefit from a near-peer mentor.
The Ram Orientation Redesign is part of the larger Ram Start project, an initiative to enhance the new student and family onboarding experience, remove barriers in higher education, and increase enrollment by reducing summer melt. Through Ram Start focus groups, two of the themes that emerged from student and staff focus groups were the need to reduce the density of orientation and reduce anxiety with course registration. Students shared:
To address student feedback to reduce the density of orientation and to reduce anxiety with course registration, a group has been charged to create a CSU model that decouples course registration from Ram Orientation. CSU executive leadership has endorsed this idea and supports moving forward with this model at CSU. The model to decouple orientation and registration is a trending model at institutions across the country and is one way of reducing both the density of our orientation programming and the associated anxiety connected to course registration for students. A long-term strategy group and two working groups (advising operations and orientation programming) will develop the approach that works best for CSU, with the goal of launching a redesign in Spring/Summer 2026.
Through the Ram Start Onboarding Project, one of the themes that emerged from student focus groups was earlier and better advising information. Students shared:
To address the student feedback, a group of leaders among the CSU Advising Network and partners within Orientation & Transition Programs were charged with creating a common advising curriculum for all new students to understand what to expect with CSU academic advising during orientation and to provide this information as part of the Online Ram Orientation modules prior to students participating in a scheduled orientation session. This project was completed in April 2025 for new students entering Fall 2025.
With the upcoming Ram Orientation Redesign that will decouple course registration from the orientation program, members from this working group will reconvene to identify what content and action items from the orientation advising curriculum will become part of a newly developed pre-advising module that is required prior to a new student advising and registration appointment. This revision will also connect in with a larger project to develop content mapping throughout the new student onboarding experience as well as a larger project to develop a more holistic academic advising common curriculum.
