A major public research university with a student body of more than 35,000. Each semester during open enrollment, roughly 2,000 students need in-person help from its Office of the Registrar and Office of Evaluations. These offices run with teams of ten to twenty, many of them students themselves — and demand concentrates into the open-enrollment peak.
Education
How a 35,000-Student University Eliminated Enrollment-Day Crowds in Three Weeks
A major public research university stood up Frontlion's in-person service platform in just three weeks, ahead of fall open enrollment. The crowds that had spilled onto the quad every semester never formed: students checked in by phone, kiosk, or text and waited wherever they liked, while staff gained real-time visibility into demand.
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35K
Student body
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3weeks
Implementation timeline
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20
Staff trained in the rollout window
Who They Are
Customer Snapshot
Student Body
35,000+
Peak Enrollment Volume
~2,000 during open enrollment
Staff
10–20 per office
Offices
Registrar · Office of Evaluations
The Problem
The Challenge
At an institution of 35,000 students, about 2,000 of them needed in-person help during each enrollment period — and they all arrived in the same narrow window. The predictable result was a crush: hundreds of students spilling out of the buildings and onto the campus quad. Staff had no way to give students a wait estimate, and no visibility into which services were driving demand.
- Hundreds of students spilling onto the quad during open enrollment — a crowded, chaotic front door
- No way to estimate or communicate wait times to students
- No insight into which services were driving demand at any given moment — staffing by instinct
- COVID transformed a persistent congestion problem into a public-health concern
The Decision
Why Frontlion?
With open enrollment bearing down and only three weeks to act, the university needed a partner that could deliver a working platform fast and make it easy for a digital-native student body to adopt. Frontlion could install, deploy hardware, and train staff in a three-week window, with multiple check-in paths — QR code, kiosk, and text — and single sign-on so staff logged in with credentials they already used.
Speed to Value
Live in three weeks — software installed, kiosk with digital tablet deployed, QR-code signage up, and all 20 staff trained before fall enrollment.
Multi-Path Check-In
QR code, kiosk, and text — students met wherever they sit on the technology-comfort spectrum.
Single Sign-On
Staff log in with the same credentials they use for every other campus system — no new password, no adoption friction.
Demand Insights
Platform captures which services drive demand at each time and day — both offices now staff to real demand rather than bracing for a crowd.
How It Works
The Solution
Frontlion deployed its in-person service platform at the university’s registration and evaluations offices in roughly three weeks — installing software, a kiosk with a digital tablet, and QR-code signage, and training all 20 staff in the same window.
Deployment
How the Rollout Worked
1
Contract Signed
2
Software + Hardware Installed; Staff Trained
3
Fall Open Enrollment — Live
Impact
Operational Challenges Solved & Results
Frontlion went from contract to live system in three weeks — hardware and staff training included — just before fall open enrollment. The crowds that had been a fixture for years did not form. Students saw the signage, checked in by phone, kiosk, or text, and went about their day until their turn came. The university now uses platform data to inform staffing at both offices.
3 weeks
Weeks from Contract to Live
From contract to live system in three weeks — hardware installed and all staff trained before fall enrollment opened.
20
Staff Trained
All 20 staff trained within the three-week window — adoption resistance proved a non-issue for a digital-native student body.
✓
Enrollment Crowds Eliminated
The hundreds of students who once spilled onto the quad did not form — solved in the first semester.
✓
Data-Driven Staffing
Leaders now see which services drive demand at which times and staff accordingly — the enrollment crowd is a scheduling problem, not a surprise.