Change Management for Smarter Scheduling

Everyone loves change management—said no one ever.

But if you want smarter scheduling that actually sticks, you can’t skip it. Building a healthy academic scheduling culture means tackling both the technical and human challenges that too often derail good intentions.

That’s why Ad Astra partnered with Complete College America (CCA)—a national leader in driving scaled change across higher education—to create a proven framework for cultural transformation. Together, we combine CCA’s strategies for equity and student success with Ad Astra’s scheduling expertise to help institutions turn scheduling from a bureaucratic headache into a strategic student success intervention.

What you'll learn:

• How to really assess what’s working (and what’s in the way) without causing an all-campus meltdown
• Ways to build a cross-functional team that actually collaborates instead of pointing fingers
• Tips for using data to convince even the most skeptical stakeholders
• How to keep momentum going once the initial excitement fades (because it always does)
• Insights from the CCA–Ad Astra framework on aligning smart scheduling with structured pathways to improve equity, completion, and institutional sustainability

Why this matters:

The U.S. cannot meet its workforce and completion goals without bold action. Current two-year graduation rates hover at 17% and four-year rates at just 40%, with deep equity gaps across race and income. Smarter scheduling, supported by effective change management, can be a lever to close those gaps—ensuring students get the courses they need, when they need them.

In partnership with: