From financial holds to full classrooms: How Fordham University changed its approach to student accounts
For Stefano Terzulli, Director of Student Accounts and Bursar at Fordham University, 2022 brought a major shift in how the university handled past-due student balances. Like many colleges and universities, Fordham applied transcript holds as a late-stage incentive to encourage students to pay down past-due balances. But a new law made it illegal to deny transcript requests based solely on financial standing, eliminating the Fordham’s last means of prompting students to address their debts.
The change created two major problems.
Retention at risk. Without transcript holds as leverage, students with unpaid balances are at risk of completely unenrolling.
Financial pressure. A growing volume of past-due accounts puts strain on university financial health and staff.
QUICK LOOK AT FORDHAM UNIVERSITY
Non-profit New York City institution founded in 1841
17,144 students
4 campuses, 9 colleges
Early intervention + personalized payment support = better outcomes
Step one for Fordham was realizing that they need to connect with students earlier and help them address balances proactively. But that, too, added pressure to Terzulli’s staff, considering the higher population of students with balances at the beginning of the billing cycle versus after the add/drop period. This early contact initiative wasn’t sustainable without some form of auxiliary support, however, and Fordham didn’t have the capacity to hire and train additional personnel.
Enter: ECSI’s RecoverySelect, a service that helps students resolve student accounts earlier without putting additional strain on university staff.
Instead of waiting until a student was already struggling to make payments, Fordham now refers students with unpaid balances above $1,000 to ECSI for personalized outreach and support. Through a seamless integration with Fordham’s student information system (SIS), RecoverySelect automatically begins compliantly and systematically reaching out to students with past-due accounts. RecoverySelect’s series of live calls, texts, and email ensure that no notices get lost in the digital shuffle. Throughout the process, payment updates are reported back to the school in real time.
RecoverySelect is not a collections agency, but rather a program to help students repay past-due balances before engaging a third-party agency, protecting them from negative credit bureau reporting and helping them stay in good standing with their institution.
Higher retention, stronger cash flow, less stress
Since adopting RecoverySelect, Fordham has seen firsthand how early intervention improves both student outcomes and institutional finances. The resolution rate for the 2023-24 school year was over 76 percent, and 87 percent of students referred to RecoverySelect were able to re-enroll for the following semester.
For the university, cash flow is up while staff stress is down. With RecoverySelect owning outreach, Terzulli’s team has more bandwidth for one-on-one conversations with students who require additional guidance and support. Those exchanges, too, have become more productive. Now when students call in, they’re already aware of their balance and are ready to talk about payment options.
And perhaps most significantly, Terzulli's office has seen a 50 percent increase in cash flow. Students are now making payments a month earlier than they did prior to implementing RecoverySelect.
By helping students navigate financial challenges without derailing their education, ECSI’s RecoverySelect is making a difference for students and the institutions that serve them.
