As a sponsor of this year’s Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities (AJCU) conference at Fordham University, Modo had the opportunity to meet with CIOs, IT leaders, enterprise architects, digital experience teams, and technology strategists from institutions across the Jesuit higher education community. Fordham’s beautiful Rose Hill campus provided the perfect backdrop for the event, with a stunning spring day that made it easy to appreciate the university’s rich history and sense of community while discussing the future of the digital campus.
While every campus has unique priorities, several common themes surfaced repeatedly. The conversations were less about individual applications and more about how institutions can create a more connected, secure, and student-centered digital ecosystem.
Whether the discussion focused on AI, mobile experiences, portals, engagement, or technology strategy, leaders shared a common goal: reducing friction while maximizing the value of existing technology investments.
Here are five priorities that emerged consistently throughout the conference.
1. Student Engagement Is Becoming an Institution-Wide Technology Strategy
Student engagement remains a top priority for institutions focused on retention, persistence, and student success. Many institutions are rethinking how students discover opportunities, access support services, connect with campus communities, and navigate important milestones throughout their academic journey.
For Jesuit institutions in particular, engagement is closely tied to mission. The challenge is not simply getting students to attend more events. It is helping students build meaningful connections, find community, and feel a greater sense of belonging on campus.
Leaders are increasingly asking:
- How do we make involvement easier to discover?
- How do we connect engagement to retention and belonging?
- How do we identify disengaged students earlier?
- How do we create a more connected student experience?
The conversation is moving beyond participation tracking and toward creating a comprehensive engagement ecosystem that supports students throughout their journey.
2. AI for Higher Education Is Moving from Experimentation to Execution
Few topics generated more discussion at AJCU than AI for higher education.
What struck us most was how much the conversation has evolved over the past year. Campus leaders are no longer debating whether AI belongs in higher education. Instead, they’re asking practical questions about implementation, governance, and student impact.
Across conversations with IT leaders, several themes emerged:
- Governance and institutional oversight remain essential.
- Students expect immediate answers and personalized support.
- AI should help users complete tasks, not simply search for information.
- AI experiences should connect to existing campus systems and services.
- Institutions want AI solutions they can trust and manage over time.
There was also a noticeable shift in how institutions think about where AI should live. Rather than directing students to a standalone chatbot, many attendees were excited about the possibility of bringing AI-powered assistance directly into the digital experiences students already use.
That could mean providing support inside a campus app, student portal, admissions experience, or directly on the school’s website where prospective students and families often begin their journey. The goal is to meet students where they are rather than requiring them to navigate yet another destination.
The most forward-looking conversations focused on outcomes rather than answers. Institutions are increasingly interested in AI that can help students understand requirements, find resources, navigate processes, and take action.
The next phase of AI in higher education appears less focused on novelty and more focused on helping students achieve outcomes throughout their lifecycle, from enrollment through graduation.
3. The Campus Experience Platform Is Replacing the Traditional Portal Mindset
Portal modernization continues to be an important initiative across higher education. However, many institutions are beginning to think beyond the traditional portal model and toward a broader campus experience platform strategy.
Rather than functioning as a collection of links, a modern campus experience platform brings together content, services, communications, and workflows into a unified digital experience across mobile and desktop.
Universities are increasingly looking for:
- Personalized experiences based on role and context
- Consistent mobile and web experiences
- Simplified access to campus systems
- Integrated communications
- Action-oriented student services
The goal is no longer simply helping students find information. It is helping them complete tasks and navigate campus life more effectively.
4. Mobile-First Campus Experiences Continue to Raise Expectations
Students increasingly expect campus technology to function like the consumer applications they use every day.
As a result, many institutions are investing in mobile-first experiences that support key moments across the student lifecycle, including admissions, onboarding, orientation, academics, communications, engagement, and campus navigation.
Several attendees noted that mobile adoption is no longer the challenge. The challenge is ensuring the campus experience is designed around how students actually interact with technology.
Students don’t think in terms of systems, websites, and applications. They think in terms of tasks. They want to register for classes, find an event, locate a building, contact an advisor, or access information quickly and intuitively.
This shift is driving renewed interest in mobile campus apps and unified digital experiences that work seamlessly across devices.
5. Institutions Want Fewer Platforms and More Connected Experiences
Platform sprawl surfaced in many conversations at AJCU.
Most institutions have already invested in systems that support academics, engagement, communications, and operations. The challenge isn’t adding another platform, but instead in creating a more seamless experience across the systems already in place.
As institutions evaluate their digital strategy, they’re prioritizing technologies that can:
- Unify access to campus resources
- Reduce app fatigue
- Simplify communications
- Improve discoverability
- Create a more cohesive student experience
Students don’t care which system owns a piece of information. They simply expect experiences to work. Increasingly, institutions are focused on creating a connected experience layer that brings existing investments together rather than introducing another standalone tool.
What We’ll Be Watching Next
One of the things Modo values most about AJCU is the openness of institutions to share ideas, challenges, and lessons learned.
This year’s conversations reinforced a clear trend: higher education is moving toward more connected, personalized, and action-oriented digital experiences. Whether the focus was student engagement, AI, portals, mobile, or platform consolidation, the goal was consistent—reduce friction and help students succeed.
At Modo, that’s exactly the challenge we’re solving.
A theme we heard repeatedly: institutions don’t want another system to manage. They want a better way to connect the systems they already have.
That’s why Modo provides a unified mobile app and portal experience layer that integrates with core systems like the SIS, LMS, and CRM. Instead of replacing systems, we bring them together to create a consistent, action-oriented experience for students and a simpler, more flexible architecture for IT.
By starting with the experience layer, institutions can improve the student journey today while creating a stable foundation for future change without rebuilding every time a system evolves.
Start with the experience layer. Simplify the journey now. Stay flexible for what comes next.
Thank you to everyone who shared their perspectives at AJCU. The conversations were thoughtful, insightful, and a reminder that while technology continues to evolve, the mission remains constant: helping students feel connected, supported, and successful.
—Andy, Paul and Diane