Paraphrasing a famous theoretical physicist: “Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler.” Slate has many layers and is, by necessity, complex. We ask it to do a lot for our operations, and it generally does it all exceptionally well. Concepts transfer. Learning to write a Configurable Joins query in one part…Read more
Tag: Slate
Prepare to Launch: Going Live with Slate
The process of launching your Slate database can be an intimidating one, but it doesn’t have to be. Having completed hundreds of implementations with institutions of all types, the RHB team has developed a pre-flight checklist and identified best practices for both first-time implementations and ongoing cycle prep to help you navigate your start with…Read more
Transcript: Foster Student Belonging With a Coherent Deposit to Day One Strategy
RHB Vice President for Enrollment Management Ken Anselemnt led a January 24 webinar as part of the Leading Edge Thinking in Higher Education Series by Bay Path University’s Center for Higher Education Leadership and Innovative Practice (CHELIP). The journey to student success (and retention) doesn’t begin when students arrive at your institution—it starts when they…Read more
To Merge or Not to Merge? Pros and Cons of Merging Multiple Databases in Slate
At RHB, we have seen an increase in institutions interested in consolidating multiple admissions databases into one central Slate hub. It’s a trend that we expect to continue in the near future. According to Higher Ed Dive, 100 institutions have closed, merged, consolidated or announced plans to do so since 2016. Often, each school or…Read more
Best Practices for Slate Communications: 2023 Edition
This post contains terminology that will be familiar to seasoned users of Slate. If you’re new to the Slate universe, we recommend reading the first (and if you’re really curious, the second and third) installments of our previous three-part series on Configurable Joins. If you need a refresher on Slate-specific terminology, this glossary is also…Read more
Managing Slate’s Changes Regarding Race and Ethnicity Data
If you’re using Slate for your admissions and enrollment processes, you may have noticed that, as of July 12, race and ethnicity data that had been stored in the standard Slate race and ethnicity fields (e.g., race, hispanic) are no longer being displayed on the person record, the Reader or Slate application PDFs. This was…Read more
Stand-Up Paddle Boarding, Technology and Strategy
“I’m going to paddle board to the opposite side of the lake.” “How?” “I’ve got a paddle board.” My oldest son is as pragmatic as they come. There’s a lot of black and white in our conversations, and while I also fall in the realist camp in most areas of my life, it’s important to…Read more
Minecraft and Slate Strategy: Next Steps After You Have Your Base
Minecraft has made it to the Williams home in full force. My two oldest kids, Dougie and Dean, have decided to start capping out their daily screen time limits with a focus on chopping down virtual trees, building bases and wrecking each other’s homes–which isn’t too dissimilar from the real world. Dougie is more methodical…Read more
Getting Ready for the College Board’s New Connections Feature and What It Means for Search
Starting this fall, the way institutions will engage with student records available through the College Board will expand beyond direct-to-student “search” to an additional method called Connections. RHB is here to decode what it means for you and how we can help you maximize your institutional effectiveness in this new environment. Like many of you,…Read more
4 Tips for Auditing Slate Today in Preparation for Tomorrow
At RHB, we’ve picked up on some common patterns and needs across the hundreds of Slate databases we’ve worked in and Diagnostics we have conducted. Whether you have just implemented Slate or have been in Slate for years, it’s critical that you have a process in place to consistently audit and maintain users, data, objects…Read more