The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UTC) is a public university that blends the opportunities of a large state system with the personalized feel of a regional campus. Serving more than 12,000 students across a wide range of undergraduate and graduate programs, UTC is known for its vibrant campus culture, strong community partnerships, and commitment to student success.
The last three years we’ve had record setting freshman classes—while many institutions are facing an enrollment cliff and declining numbers.
Tonia Martin, Director of Strategic Enrollment Technology, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
Hear more from Tonia Martin about UTC’s use of Anthology Reach
Note: Apply corresponds to the Admissions Management capabilities of Anthology Reach.
The Challenge
More Competition, Fewer Students
Like many institutions nationwide, UTC faced a rapidly shrinking pool of prospective students. The lingering effects of the pandemic, coupled with the state’s free community college program, intensified competition for both first-year and transfer enrollments.
Without precision in targeting and personalization in marketing efforts, it was becoming harder to cut through the noise, connect with prospective students, and guide them through the enrollment process.
The Solution
Centralizing Outreach in One Platform
UTC turned to Anthology® Reach, a CRM built for higher education, to bring together recruitment, admissions, and marketing communications in one integrated platform.
By leveraging Reach’s data-driven targeting, UTC could:
- Identify prospective students based on specific interests, backgrounds, and engagement history
- Customize communications—from text messages to email campaigns—so that every outreach felt timely and relevant
- Coordinate with multiple colleges and divisions across campus using consistent, centralized tools
“By using Anthology Reach and being able to target students and talk to them based on who they are and what they’re interested in, we’re able to tell our story a lot better than we had in previous products,” said Tonia Martin, director of strategic enrollment technology at UTC.
Implementation of the platform was fast-tracked—UTC launched Reach in just eight to nine months to meet a critical admissions cycle deadline. Anthology’s team provided hands-on support throughout the process to ensure data migration, system setup, and staff training happened smoothly without starting from scratch.
Insights Delivered
Record-Breaking Results
With Reach in place, UTC gained an unprecedented view of the student journey. Integrating texting with email outreach allowed recruiters to communicate in students’ preferred channels while tracking all interactions in a single system. This not only increased efficiency but also allowed the team to have more intelligent, personalized conversations.
The results speak for themselves:
- 4% and 2.4% overall enrollment increase in Fall 2024 and Fall 2025 respectively, despite statewide and national declines
- Two consecutive years of record-breaking freshman classes (2023 and 2024)
- Campus-wide adoption of a unified communication toolset
“Reach was critical in helping us achieve those record-breaking classes because we could talk to students where they are, at the right time, and even engage their parents,” Martin said.
Epilogue
Technology played a vital role, but UTC’s success largely came from empowering the right people to run the system.
“Reach is powerful, but it takes investment in people,” Martin said. “Human capital is what makes our system work. I look for unicorns—people who are functional, technical, and always thinking about how to make things better.”
Beyond the day-to-day work, UTC values the opportunities Anthology provides for customers to connect with peers, exchange ideas, and bring back innovative approaches to campus.
“The benefit of coming to Anthology [Together] is meeting other people, learning from their approaches, and building a network so I can call or email other schools when I face a challenge,” Martin said.
To learn more about what's new in Reach, check out the Anthology blog or connect with an Anthologist today to learn more about how Reach can help your institution engage students at every step of their journey.
