Forthcoming Book

Broken by Design

Closing the Gap Between Systems and Student Success

A systems-level examination of why higher education’s most persistent challenges are rarely people problems—and what becomes possible when institutions redesign the conditions shaping student outcomes.

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Forthcoming

Broken
by Design

Closing the Gap Between Systems and Student Success

Dr. Kasandrea Sereno
Coming Soon

The Central Argument

We keep trying to fix people inside systems that need redesigning.

Higher education often describes its most persistent challenges in human terms: students are unprepared, disengaged, confused, resistant, or insufficiently resilient.

But what if many of those apparent people problems are predictable responses to fragmented processes, conflicting information, excessive choice, unclear ownership, difficult handoffs, and technologies that require humans to function as the integration layer?

Broken by Design examines the systems producing the outcomes institutions say they want to change.

Themes the Book Explores

What looks accidental is often structural.

01

Fragmented student journeys

How disconnected offices, technologies, policies, and handoffs turn one student journey into a series of unrelated transactions.

02

The burden of unlimited choice

Why presenting every possible option can reduce confidence, clarity, satisfaction, and decision quality.

03

Humans as the integration layer

How students and employees are forced to carry information and context between systems that do not communicate.

04

The invisible curriculum

What workflows teach students about belonging, expectations, help-seeking, and whether an institution was designed for them.

05

Heroics as an operating model

Why institutions often depend on exceptional employees working around broken systems—and mistake that effort for sustainability.

06

Technology as an amplifier

Why AI and automation can scale institutional strengths while also making existing confusion and inequity move faster.

Questions at the Center

What changes when we examine the design?

The book invites readers to look beyond individual interventions and examine the conditions shaping behavior and outcomes.

Who currently carries the burden when institutional systems fail to connect?
What are students being asked to know before we are willing to help them?
Which apparent student behaviors are predictable responses to institutional design?
Where are employees relying on memory, relationships, and manual workarounds?
What are our workflows silently teaching students about belonging and help-seeking?
Are new technologies improving the experience—or accelerating the existing system?

Who It’s For

For people ready to redesign the conditions.

College and university presidents
Provosts, cabinets, and executive teams
Student affairs and enrollment leaders
Advisors and student-success professionals
Higher education technology leaders
Researchers, designers, and policy leaders
Dr. Kasandrea Sereno

Why I’m Writing It

This argument is both professional and personal.

I experienced foster care, financed my own education, advised thousands of students, led student-success organizations, built institutional technology, and managed the functions students depend on to enter, navigate, and complete college.

Across every role, I have seen caring people achieve extraordinary outcomes while compensating for systems that make their work—and students’ lives—harder than necessary.

Broken by Design is an effort to name those patterns, connect the evidence, and help higher education shift from isolated fixes to systemic change.

Bring the Ideas to Your Institution

From the page to the work.

Keynote

Broken by Design

A provocative keynote helping audiences recognize when persistent people problems are actually systems problems.

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Workshop

Find the Friction

An interactive workshop for identifying system friction, difficult handoffs, workarounds, and redesign opportunities.

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Consulting

Student Experience Systems Review

A focused consulting engagement examining the processes, technologies, and handoffs shaping a student journey.

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Follow the journey to publication.

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