Aaron Berkowitz – General Assignment Reporter
Patrick Dilger, the school’s Director of Public Affairs, said the launch of the school’s new mobile application will hopefully give students quick and easy access to information they need right at their fingertips.
SCSU is always trying to find new ways to improve the quality of the school and the experience the students get while they attend. The Public Affairs Department’s latest attempt at doing so has been them taking steps towards developing a mobile application that will make school life easier for SCSU students.
“We introduced a new website for the university in April,” said Dilger. “We want to introduce a mobile version of that so students can access the site from their androids, iPhones, or tablets. We decided to do this because everybody finds out their information in different ways these days so ease of access and timeliness are becoming more important.”
Dilger said Public Affairs has been working hand in hand with the Student Affairs department on campus to try and find out what students feel should be included in the new mobile application. According to Dilger, students can access a survey at southernct.edu/go/mobile designed to collect to data which accurately represents what students believe the mobile application should entail.
Jian Chan, 30, the web administrator for the school, said students can also access the survey through SCSU’s Facebook and Twitter pages.
“So far we’ve gotten a wide range of responses from students and faculty,” said Chan. “From parking information, to email access, to courses. The faculty side asked for features such as surveys and mission information.”
Chan said they are still in the exploration phase of creating the application and are encouraging even more people to fill out the survey so they can create something that will best serve students/staff.
“The app isn’t [based on] all student opinion,” said Chan, “Part of the app is going to be a good set of tools that we hope, for admissions purposes, shows prospective students the campus and what it offers, or request information from right there.”
“We are very conscious in this office of social media and communication is advancing all the time,” said Dilger. “We need to keep pace with it so that in a sense is what we are doing. We want to make sure we are getting messages out to students and prospective students in the best way possible, through the mediums they use.”
Dilger and Chan said the application will hopefully be ready to launch for the spring semester and they will still be accepting ideas to improve the app or adapt to how campus changes over time.
According to Dilger, students shouldn’t worry about the cost of this application affecting or raising the price on their tuition as it comes out of the Public Affairs budget. Dilger also said his team wants to advance the university’s marketing and communication strategies while providing students with instant information.
“We are interested in hearing student opinions,” said Dilger. “This is something we think will be valuable to them because you’ll be able to access it wherever you are.”
Dilger said his team would like to narrow the list down to 20 features on the app and base those chosen on what is essential to campus life. Such as bus routes, dining hall hours/menus, campus safety, and snow closings.
“We can’t offer everything under the sun,” said Chan. “But we have to evaluate those opinions and commons to find a trend to see what best fits to serve students.”
