October is a particularly busy month for the Scarlet Journey project team.
For starters, the project team continues to load information—including prospect and application data—into Salesforce daily. As of October 2, the university had received 5,745 applications through Common App for academic year 2025-26.
“We’ve seen applications coming in at about the same rate as last year,” says JoAnn Molnar, project manager for Scarlet Journey. “We should see a spike late in October, especially on Halloween—the eve of our November 1 ‘Early Action’ application deadline.”
The Scarlet Journey team also continues with the integration into Salesforce of Five9, the university’s new service provider for the One Stop student services centers. This work has included the development of dual-language (English and Spanish) phone system prompts, which have been undergoing testing.
According to Molnar, the project team is targeting October 24 as the “go-live” date for the Five9-powered call centers.
Another expected October launch is a first-time feature: the ability for transfer applicants to provide Rutgers with a Self-Reported Academic Record, or SRAR, as part of the admissions process.
By the end of the month, the Rutgers University Foundation will launch Phase II of the integration of its campaign, gifts, engagement, and reporting functions using software provided by Affinaquest, a constituent relationship management software that helps universities boost revenue from fundraising efforts.
The move is part of the Foundation’s alignment with the university’s transition to Salesforce and will help the Foundation continue to improve and personalize the experience for donors while increasing efficiencies within its processes.
What’s next?
The Scarlet Journey team expects, by mid-November, to complete the integration into Salesforce of the applicant data for the School of Health Professions. As was the case with the previously completed integration for Rutgers School of Dental Medicine, Salesforce will serve as a pass-through for information that ultimately is populated in Banner.
In anticipation of a Spring-semester start option for undergraduate students applying to Rutgers-New Brunswick, beginning in Spring 2026, the Scarlet Journey team worked to build in mid-year admissions for first-time students.
The project team also has started gathering information on the requirements for Rutgers to have Blackthorn replace Fonteva as the university’s event management partner. As Molnar notes, “It’ll be a better fit for us because Blackthorn has more experience working with universities.”
If you have any questions about the Scarlet Journey initiative, send them to scarletjourney@finance.rutgers.edu.