Aligning Systems with Strategy at Unity Environmental University
Author's Note: This case study highlights a challenge many growing institutions face: how to modernize infrastructure while maintaining momentum. Unity Environmental University reached a critical inflection point where their legacy technology, CAMS by Thesis, was no longer aligned with the operational demands and agility needed to support their rapid increase in enrollment and Enterprise Model.
What follows is the story of how Unity moved from a constrained on-premise system to a scalable, AI-ready Student Information System (SIS) as part of its long-term modernization strategy, partnering with Tondro as an implementation specialist to deliver a solution centered on agility, speed, and student success.
Strategy at Scale: How Unity Environmental University Modernized its Infrastructure to Support a 10x Growth Plan
Under the leadership of President Dr. Melik Khoury, Unity Environmental University made a deliberate strategic decision to defy the higher education "enrollment cliff." In 2017, Unity adopted an ‘Enterprise Model’ structure, organizing into semi-independent Sustainable Education Business Units (SEBUs) to increase resilience and flexibility. While the strategy was designed to be audience-focused rather than explicitly digital-first, the demand for their distance education programs exploded. As enrollment grew, the institution found itself supporting a massive remote population on legacy infrastructure originally built for a small residential college. By 2023, enrollment surged to over 7,500 students, allowing Unity to freeze tuition through 2030 and expand access.
But this rapid expansion collided with a rigid operational reality. The University’s infrastructure, built for a small campus, wasn’t designed to support the scale and complexity of the new Enterprise vision. As the student body grew, the legacy on-prem SIS, CAMS by Thesis, showed increasing performance and reliability strain, creating operational risk that could slow the model Unity’s leadership had built.
To bridge the gap between their strategic vision and technical reality, Unity engaged Tondro as an implementation partner to help migrate from their legacy CAMS Student Information System (SIS) to a robust Salesforce-based architecture congruent with Unity’s Enterprise Model.
(Note: Unity refers to this platform internally as their 'Information System' (IS), reflecting its broader role in housing data beyond just student records—a philosophy that drove the entire project.).
This transition required a complex data migration from CAMS and deep cultural change, and it established the “Agile Core” needed to operationalize Unity’s long-term growth strategy at scale.
Introduction: Overcoming Legacy Limitations
Unity Environmental University is a case study in intentional transformation. Recognizing the shifting landscape of higher education, the leadership team executed a bold strategic pivot to democratize access to environmental degrees. By embracing a hybrid, year-round model, they achieved what few institutions have: growing enrollment by over 1,000% while containing costs for students.
However, the technology needed to support this vision had not evolved at the same pace. The University was operating on a legacy SIS implemented back when data was still being saved on floppy disks. Designed for a static, residential campus in a pre-cloud world, it reflected a different era of higher ed operations and was increasingly misaligned with a modern, high-velocity enterprise.
As the strategic plan accelerated, the technical debt became an operational ceiling. “It was like technical bandages over technical bandages,” says Kerry Hafford, Chief Organizational Effectiveness Officer. “The system had become increasingly unstable, with frequent outages and growing complexity. Once we hit 3,500, 4,000 students, it was clear we had to make a change.”
The path forward wasn't simple. It required more than just buying new software; it required carefully re-examining decades of customized processes to align operations with the President’s vision of scalability. “I had this sense that we were getting to a point where it would be do or die with that system,” Hafford notes.
For Unity, modernizing the SIS wasn't an IT project—it was a necessary step to secure the future they had strategically envisioned.
“The system had become increasingly unstable, with frequent outages and growing complexity. I had this sense that we were getting to a point where we had to make a change.”
Why Salesforce as SIS?
Unity operates under a unique "Enterprise" model, with multiple distinct business verticals under one umbrella. They needed a system that could handle standard centralized records while allowing for the flexibility to support different academic calendars and student populations.
Standard "out of the box" SIS vendors were too rigid. Dr. Erika Latty, President of the Enterprise & Chief Academic Officer, notes that Unity’s culture is about speed and adaptation.
“That's sort of the culture we fight against [in higher ed],” Latty explains. “Don't get hung up on the glacially slow pace of higher ed because that's where higher ed is failing. We really wanted the ability to create a system that scaled and worked for us.”
After evaluating options, Unity’s leadership determined Salesforce best aligned with their Enterprise Model and long-term data strategy. Salesforce offered the customization they needed, and it required a partner who could translate their complex academic needs into technical reality.
“Don’t get hung up on the glacially slow pace of higher ed because that’s where higher ed is failing...We really wanted the ability to create a system that scaled and worked for us.”
Why Tondro: Bridging Academic Vision and Technical Reality
Unity’s implementation was complicated by the release of Salesforce’s new Education Cloud. Being early adopters of a powerful new toolset, they needed a partner who could help them execute their modernization strategy efficiently and at scale.
They found that partner in Tondro. The collaboration between Unity’s internal leaders and subject matter experts and Tondro’s technical team became the engine for translating Unity’s institutional plan into an AI-ready scalable system.
“I've told Lucey [at Tondro] this. She's a wizard,” Hafford says. “The ability to talk about what it is that we're looking to do and have somebody understand the business speak that I'm using, and also do the really heavy technical implementation...it’s been spectacular.”
This partnership allowed Unity to tackle their most complex workflows and automate them in ways their old system could not.
Implementation and Operational Impact
From the outset, Unity’s leadership defined the modernization roadmap as a core pillar of the Enterprise Model. Tondro’s role was to help execute and accelerate that roadmap, ensuring the technology kept pace with Unity’s strategic ambitions. Since going live in February 2024, the University has operated on a stable cloud environment that scales with their growth. Beyond stability, the shift has delivered measurable efficiency gains for staff and students.
Financial Aid & Loan Eligibility
One of the most complex administrative tasks—reviewing student loan progression—previously required significant manual effort. “It's a very difficult, time-consuming process,” Hafford notes. Working with Tondro, they architected a solution that “took a three-week process down to a couple of days.”
Scaling Without Staffing
Unity has seen a surge in military student enrollment, a population that requires heavy compliance reporting to the VA. “We were able to handle 50% more certifications without increasing any staff members to do that,” Hafford says. “And anybody that works with the VA knows that's a very manual process.”
Speed to Service
Transfer credit evaluations, critical for incoming students, are now faster than ever. The team is now clearing almost all evaluations within 24 hours, beating their previous 48-hour SLA and providing students with faster admissions decisions.
Outcomes at a Glance: The Impact of Modernization
Unlocking Scale: Removed the operational “ceiling” that caused stability issues around 3,500 students, enabling the University to support continued enrollment growth to over 10,000 students on an infrastructure designed for Unity’s Enterprise Model.
50% Efficiency Boost: Processed 50% more military certifications without adding any staff, supported by streamlined processes and a unified source of truth.
Speed to Service: Cut transfer credit evaluation turnaround time from 48 hours to 24 hours, getting admissions decisions to students faster.
90% Faster Workflows: Reduced complex student loan eligibility reviews from 3 weeks to just 2 days by surfacing structured, complete data and automated workflows at the exact points where financial aid staff need them.
Improved Reliability: Significantly reduced unplanned outages associated with the legacy system, moving from a heavily monitored on-prem environment to a stable, cloud-based platform.
“If we hadn’t done the prior work on getting our data to a point where it could be consumed by the agent, we would not have been able to do that. Modernization is the gatekeeper to innovation.”
Why It Matters: The Data Foundation for AI
Unity Environmental University has successfully executed a massive digital transformation in higher ed, shifting from a maintenance mindset on a legacy platform to a growth mindset. But the most critical outcome of this migration wasn't stability; it was readiness.
By doing the hard, unglamorous work of cleaning and normalizing decades of historical data and structuring it within a modern architecture, Unity laid the necessary foundation for Artificial Intelligence.
When Salesforce released Agentforce, Unity was one of the very first adopters—a leap that would have been significantly harder, if not out of reach, on their prior data architecture.
“If we hadn't done the prior work on getting our systems where they were...getting our data into a point where it could be consumed by the agent, we would not have been able to do that,” says Dr. Erika Latty.
This proves a critical lesson for higher ed leaders: Modernization is the gatekeeper to innovation. Without the foundational investment in cleaning and sorting data, advanced tools like AI remain out of reach. Unity didn't just get a new information system; they built the infrastructure that allows them to leverage the next generation of intelligence while other schools are still rebooting servers.
“Modernization is the gatekeeper to innovation.”
Resources:
Watch the SFBU Case Story Video
Read the SFBU Case Story: Meeting the Mission
Request the 50-page Salesforce-as-SIS Implementation Guide (.EDU address required)