Texts from Willie: K-State’s new AI virtual assistant program helps students get connected on campus
By Ashley Pauls
K-State Alumni Association
On her way to class, a K-State student glances down at her phone and notices a new
message alert.
It’s a text from none other than Willie the Wildcat, K-State’s mascot. He’s just checking
in and asking how the student’s semester is going. She replies, “Good, but having
trouble finding a club to join.” Immediately, Willie gets to work, and quickly responds
with some suggestions to meet the student’s needs.
While this might be just one small moment in a busy day, these artificial intelligence-powered
“texts from Willie” are already making a difference in the K-State student community.
The university launched its Willie the Wildcat virtual assistant program in January
2025 — a targeted AI tool available 24/7 for first-time freshmen and transfer students
on the Manhattan and Salina campuses. Not only can students ask the Willie chatbot
questions, K-State has a set of pre-programmed messages that are texted directly to
students throughout the semester.
The program logged more than 18,000 text exchanges in the spring 2025 semester, and
in fall 2025 that number climbed to more than 28,000.
“Texting seems to be the best way to get students to answer; they want to answer quickly
and take care of things,” said Shana Bender, director of retention and persistence
with K-State’s Academic Achievement Center. “We can't always predict how a student
is doing, and so the best way to learn that information is through their voice. And
what's nice about Willie is that gives an easy entry point where we can start a conversation.”
Real help in real time
According to Bill Watts, associate vice president of academic and career engagement,
higher education institutions are becoming more proactive about seeking out student
voices and consistently checking on students’ wellbeing.
In the fall of 2024, K-State conducted a WellCAT survey: a series of 12 simple yes
or no questions designed to take just one minute to complete. The survey explored
topics such as whether students were attending classes regularly or if they had made
a friend at K-State. And the university didn’t just collect data — staff followed
up with students encountering issues, such as helping those who wanted to get more
involved on campus to connect with a student club or organization.
Even though the survey had a great response rate, the university wanted to find a
way to meet student needs even more quickly and effectively.
Enter the texts from Willie program and the AI chatbot. The program is what’s known
as a closed AI, meaning it draws information only from official K-State web resources
and not the internet as a whole.
The timing of Willie’s pre-programed messages — which cover themes such as academic
success, financial aid, social connections and mental health — are scheduled based
on research into student development theory targeting the point in time in a semester
where particular questions are most relevant. For example, in the first four weeks,
it’s important to help students find a sense of belonging on campus. Then when they
receive their tuition bill, they’re more likely to have financial-related questions.
Students also can ask questions about tutoring assistance or food insecurity.
“About every week to 10 days, they get some kind of a nudge checking in,” Watts said.
“And we’re hoping this demonstrates to our students how much we care about them by
connecting them to resources and proactively removing some of the barriers they might
face.”
If a student replies to Willie that yes, they do need assistance, the AI program will
try to provide them with information to address any concerns. If the AI is not able
to pinpoint a solution, the request is elevated to a team of academic coaches, who
can then follow up with the students directly.
‘A trusted personality’
Both Watts and Bender agreed that selecting Willie the Wildcat as the face of K-State’s
AI chatbot and texting program was an easy decision.
“The vendor let us know that what they found over these few years is that most campuses
that have high engagement rates are using their mascot or some type of nonhuman,”
Watts said. “Students, their research suggests, feel more comfortable sometimes having
an exchange with a bot.”
“I think the benefit of having a mascot as the receiving and asking entity is that
Willie is objective and nonjudgmental,” Bender added. “It becomes a trusted personality
that students feel safe reporting to. Willie the Wildcat is not going to judge you
for asking something you might not know.”
Last spring, 96% of the target audience chose to stay opted in to the text messaging
program, and over the course of the semester 62% of the students had at least one
text exchange with Willie. In fall 2025, the student opt-in rate was 98%.
“Based on the opt-in rate, students aren't finding this intrusive or annoying,” Bender
said. “They're keeping it on their phones, so they're seeing this as a resource to
have in their back pocket, even if they're not interacting or responding to every
survey. I think that's a pretty good indicator that they see it as a valuable thing
to hold on to.”
Watts said the university also is aware of the potential for sensitive issues to arise
from a student’s text exchanges with Willie. If a student indicates they are unsafe
in any way, the university has protocols for immediately alerting law enforcement.
Campus-wide collaboration
Bender said that a number of organizations across campus have supported the launch
of this program, ranging from the financial aid office to the K-State police department.
She also credits Luke Matulewicz, the Academic Achievement Center’s assistant director,
with handling behind-the-scenes logistics and making sure students who ask for help
receive a response.
“It has become a huge campus effort to make sure students have what they need when
they need it,” Bender said.
And when it came time to off board the first cohort of students from the program over
the summer, so that it could be relaunched for new freshmen in fall 2025, students
didn’t want to say goodbye.
“We built a campaign, and Willie sent them a message that said, hey, you know, thanks
for communicating with me,” Watts said. “And here are the ways you can connect for
resources. It gave them some advice and guidance, but it said, I'm going to be working
with new freshmen and new transfers now, and we got all kinds of responses like, ‘Willie,
don't go!’”
“They were really sad to see Willie go,” Bender echoed. “They said they were going
to miss him. So we see that as good value added, like they seemed to appreciate having
that there. I think overall, the response has been fairly positive.”
Planning for the future
Pending future funding availability, Watts and Bender would one day love to expand
the program to meet students’ needs throughout their time at K-State. While freshmen
are still getting acclimated to campus and college life, seniors might have questions
about jobs or graduate degrees.
“We've been able to provide it for our most at-risk populations: our first-time freshmen
and first-time transfers,” Watts said. “Those are the students we know need the most
support. We'd love to scale it, if we had the right funding support, to all Wildcats.”
If you would like to learn more about supporting this program, contact Watts at billwatts@ksu.edu. You can also read more at k-state.edu/students/text-willie.
— This article originally appeared in the K-Stater magazine, which is delivered quarterly
to K-State Alumni Association members. LEARN MORE