The new Rowan app: goin’ mobile

So you want to check your grades, shop for textbooks, and confirm the start time for the next Rowan women’s basketball game.

And, as is so often the case these days, you want to do it all from the palm of your hand.

Now there’s an app for that!

The new Rowan Mobile app, available for Android and iPhone devices, will put the power of Rowan’s website on your smartphone or tablet.

Free from Google Play and the Apple App Store, the app provides instant access to key phone numbers, news, athletics info, the Banner system, email, WGLS podcasts, student and faculty directories, and much more.

Rowan Database Administrator Mark Pingol said the app is a modified version of an off-the-shelf product by Ellucian, a higher education software maker and the creator of Rowan’s Banner student information system.

“About 900 colleges and universities are using it,” Pingol said. “I reprogrammed it – Rowanized it – so it’s specific to our university.”

He said the app, which launched quietly in June, is still technically in beta, or test mode, but is fully functional. Over time more functionality will be added including the option of registering for courses, he said.

“The application is very flexible,” he said. “There’s already a lot on it – maps, important phone numbers, access to Banner, etc. – but if users have recommendations we can modify it to do much more.”

Junior Nick Scarpa, 20, a radio, television & film major working with his smartphone in the Student Center pit recently, hadn’t heard about the Rowan Mobile app but, perusing it, liked what he saw.

“It’s easier to use than having to go online through the web browser on my phone,” he said. “If I could register for classes on it, that’d be amazing.”

Junior history major Amanda Green, 20, working on her smartphone in Campbell Library, said she’d download the app if it was directly useful to her.

“I’d use it to look up books I need for courses,” she said.

Pingol said if students would like to see specific features they can email him directly at DBA@Rowan.edu and he’ll look into adding them.