Equity 2030: A Call to Close Equity Gaps

As part of Minnesota State's Equity 2030 plan, Minnesota State Community & Technical College leadership made an institutional commitment to eliminate educational equity gaps across its campuses by 2030. It quickly became clear that having the right infrastructure in place would be essential to a successful outcome.

"Equity 2030 is our top priority across the entire system. Our vision and mission is a success story for every student. We know it’s an ambitious goal, so its critical to figure out what tools and resources we can obtain to accelerate our progress.” - Matt Borcherding, Provost

The Challenge:

Manual Processes Led to Inequitable Schedules & Student Frustration

For years, the college relied on manual scheduling processes that consumed months of staff time, created bottlenecks, and left students with limited and inequitable schedule options. This friction directly undermined the institution’s Equity 2030 mission.

During listening tours across campuses with students, faculty, and staff, the leadership team heard the same message: outdated scheduling processes made it difficult for students to access the courses they needed, when they needed them.

"During our listening sessions, we were able to collect an immense amount of data on existing scheduling barriers. We realized it was critical that we figure out a way to adjust our schedules to better meet our students’ diverse pathways. Our previous scheduling process was archaic at best. We worked with lots of spreadsheets, paper files, post-it notes, all sorts of things.” - Matt Borcherding, Provost

Without real-time scheduling insights, administrators had no systematic way to prevent bottlenecks or ensure equity in course access.

"We know that students share our scheduling frustrations. We need to be able to optimize for a schedule that works for all our students, and when they can’t find a schedule that makes sense to them, we are forcing them into modalities that may not be appropriate for their learning style." - Brenda Mergens, Assistant to the Dean

The time burden was immense, with a full scheduling cycle taking up to 10 months, while determining section numbers alone consumed weeks of staff time.

“Our current scheduling process feels like throwing spaghetti on the wall. We’re always having to guess at the numbersand by the time we get feedback, students are already in the enrollment process. It creates a challenging experience for everyone.” - Alicia Carley, Dean of Liberal Arts and Sciences

The Solution

Building the Academic Operation Infrastructure to Achieve Equity 2030

To align infrastructure with vision, Minnesota State Community & Technical College selected Coursedog as its academic operations platform. Leadership recognized that without streamlined and data-driven scheduling, the transformative Equity 2030 goals would remain out of reach.

“You can’t accomplish this without having an effective and efficient infrastructure. Academic operations is at the core of that. If processes like scheduling aren’t streamlined and effective, you’re never going to reach your end objective.” - Matt Borcherding, Provost

From Guesswork to Student-Driven Schedules

With Coursedog, the college shifted from a guesswork-driven process to one grounded in data and student demand. Real-time insights now allow administrators to adjust schedules quickly and equitably, while predictive analytics help design pathways aligned to student success.

“Coursedog is enabling us to empower students to really take ownership over their schedule. It’s going to be incredible to have the ability to put together a schedule that really matches the needs of our student demographics.” - Alicia Carley, Dean of Liberal Arts and Sciences

Coursedog is empowering Minnesota State to make data-driven, student-centered scheduling decisions that align with their equity goals.

"We are going to be looking at our data more than ever before to reach our equitable goals. For instance, with Coursedog, we are going to be looking at success data and making decisions based on that data. We can look at if a student takes Course X at the same time as Course Y, what that success rate is going to be using some of those predictive analytics. Based off that data, we can make a schedule that meets student demand with relative ease."  - Matt Borcherding, Provost

Collaborative Integration Approach

Minnesota State Community & Technical College's IT leadership appreciated the careful technical due diligence Coursedog conducted throughout the evaluation. The team ensured that Coursedog's Academic Operations Platform would integrate seamlessly with their  existing technology stack, particularly with their homegrown Student Information System (ISRS).

“We were immediately impressed with the carefulness that the team took to walk us through the integration approach. It was probably the most careful integration call I’ve ever sat on in my whole career. There was true commitment to making sure we were brought up to speed and felt comfortable with the implementation approach.” - Chris Welle, Director of Apps and Infrastructure

A Solutions-Focused Approach

Throughout the evaluation process, Minnesota State Community & Technical College was impressed with the solutions-focused mindset that every Coursedog team member brought to the conversation. It felt like a true partnership before there was even an official agreement in place.

“So many software vendors take the approach of, ‘here’s our product, how do you fit into this?’ With Coursedog, it has been the complete opposite. The team really focuses on understanding your specific needs, and figuring out a way to make things work for your institutional processes.” - Alicia Carley, Dean of Liberal Arts and Sciences

The college anticipates significant time savings in the scheduling process, allowing staff to focus on more strategic initiatives.

"We believe that Coursedog's software will help us go from seven hours per change to three hours per change. Based on an average number of changes in a year, that will enable us to save +580 hours every year." - Alicia Carley, Dean of Liberal Arts and Sciences

Looking Ahead

Faster Paths to Completion Drive Greater Equity

With a modernized scheduling process, Minnesota State Community & Technical College expects to accelerate time to completion for students,  a direct driver of equity, access, and workforce readiness.

"That's an equity measure since scheduling software will absolutely lead to a faster path to completion. And that's the faster they can get into the workforce and better support their families. " - Alicia Carley, Dean of Liberal Arts and Sciences

System-Wide Integration and Standardization

Looking beyond its own campuses, Minnesota State Community & Technical College is taking a leadership role in developing integration packages that could benefit the broader Minnesota State system.

"Minnesota State’s approach is to be as common as possible, and only as different as necessary. Whether that's with our equity initiatives or having common course numbering across the college, we need the right infrastructure in place to support the necessary system-wide collaboration." - Alicia Carley, Dean of Liberal Arts and Sciences