Integration Made Easy: The University of Evansville
What happens when Residence Life, IT, and eRezLife work in sync
Featuring insights from:
- Brian Conner, Assistant Dean of Students / Director of Residence Life
- Bob Szurgot, Director of Business Systems
A New Era for Residence Life at Evansville
When Brian Conner stepped into the Director of Residence Life role at the University of Evansville, he inherited more than a title. He also inherited a legacy of manual processes.
“Spreadsheets and spreadsheets,” Brian said with a laugh. “We were doing everything by hand, all the emails, a constant back and forth with IT. It worked, but it just wasn’t sustainable. We needed something more efficient and modern.”
The team made the move to eRezLife, fully embracing an integration with Ellucian Colleague. With strong collaboration between Residence Life, IT, and the eRezLife integration team, they streamlined operations, reduced manual work, and created a better experience for both staff and students.
Streamlining Processes with Integration
A key factor in the University of Evansville’s success with eRezLife is the seamless integration with Ellucian Colleague. This integration ensures accurate data synchronization between systems, significantly reducing the need for manual data entry and minimizing errors across student records.
“Thanks to the integration between Ellucian Colleague and eRezLife, we’re able to collaborate more effectively with campus departments to ensure data is accurate and up-to-date,” says Brian. “This supports our ability to make and communicate housing assignments, determine eligibility, and ensure students are billed correctly.”
Bob adds, “The integration simplifies our workflow. It’s not just about saving time. It’s about improving accuracy and creating consistency across our systems.”
As a result, students experience a more connected and efficient campus environment, where systems work together to support their housing journey from start to finish.
Integration That Works: IT’s Ideal Scenario
From the IT perspective, the transformation was significant. Previously, Bob Szurgot and his team managed a custom-built housing application that required regular IT involvement.
It’s hard to get more efficient than doing nothing. The bottom line is, it’s nearly hands-off for us now,” said Bob, “We used to rely on Brian doing his manual wizardry behind the scenes to make everything line up. Then our team would assist in importing the data. Now we don’t do any of that. The data flows where it needs to, automatically.”
When issues come up, they’re resolved quickly, thanks to responsive support from the eRezLife integrations team. “Honestly, the documentation was so good, I could have trained anyone on my team to do the setup,” Bob added. “That made a big difference for us, and eRezLife kept pace with any updates and changes from Ellucian.”
Building a Partnership
Brian and Bob credit the project’s success to strong communication, shared ownership, and reliable support from eRezLife.
“The eRezLife team was phenomenal,” said Bob. “Fast, responsive, and they knew exactly what needed to happen anytime we hit a snag.”
Brian added, “We were testing early in the onboarding process, and maybe only for a day or two. Then we went live. That’s how easy it was.”
That kind of partnership gave their team the confidence to move quickly and efficiently.
Integrations Advice for Others
For other institutions considering a similar move, Brian and Bob offered helpful advice:
Test early, test often – “Testing gave us peace of mind,” Brian said. “We started reviewing documentation and testing well before we needed to go live. Because we gave ourselves that lead time, the actual testing process was short and smooth.”
“The test environments made it easy to simulate and adjust everything,” Bob added.
Bring in billing and IT partners from the start –“They need to be at the table early,” Brian emphasized. “Their input helped us avoid surprises and ensured things were working properly from the beginning.”
Good support matters – “We could always reach out to the eRezLife team and get things solved quickly,” Bob said. “We expected initial errors, and the team helped us resolve them right away. Easy fixes with hands-on guidance.”
Beyond Assignments: Simplifying Forms and Insurance
While the original goal was to improve the housing assignment process, the benefits quickly expanded. Brian’s team began consolidating forms from multiple platforms, including JotForm, Microsoft Forms, and SurveyMonkey, into eRezLife’s form management tools.
“Now it’s a one-stop shop,” Brian said. “Students know where to go, staff know who has access, and we’re not digging through links anymore.”
The improvements continue: a GradGuard integration is on the horizon. The University of Evansville plans to offer renters insurance directly through eRezLife, making it easier for students to understand Evansville’s policies and protect themselves and their belongings.
What’s Next for the University of Evansville?
The early results speak for themselves: fewer spreadsheets, fewer bottlenecks, and fewer IT support tickets. And as student expectations grow, the team is confident that their integrated system can keep up.
“If we need to create a new term or adjust a date, we just update the template,” Brian said. “It’s not a heavy lift – that matters because housing timelines are always changing. We feel ready to take on the challenges ahead because we feel confident in our partnerships with IT and eRezLife.”
“If you’ve been doing things manually,” Brian said, “you’ll be amazed at how simple it is once implemented.”
Interested in Highlighting your Campus?
Want to share how your campus is using eRezLife? We’d love to hear from you – reach out to [email protected] and let’s showcase your story next!
Welcome to the community. We’re glad you’re here!
