Universities need to embrace mobile: University of San Diego

The University of San Diego is going mobile to connect with its growing student body and said other schools need to embrace the platform. Among several new mobile initiatives is an iPhone application, mobile landing site and application for BlackBerry smartphones. The application and other mobile deployments that were created by Terriblyclever Design were paid for by the school’s IT budget. “Our students are extremely mobile,” said Chris Wessells, vice provost and chief information officer at the University of San Diego. “We just want apps that are practical and in demand for the students.”Mr. Wessells said USD’s mobile applications were designed to make the school more accessible to students and to make things more effective and practical because of the prevalence of mobile devices amongst college students. Within the first four hours of the application launches there were more than 500 downloads. “I think universities and colleges that don’t invest in mobile apps will find themselves in a predicament,” Mr. Wessells said. “We happen to be among the leading universities in the country to do this.”