Kean Un-Corq-ed: How Cougar Link Is Powered!

Find out more about the system behind Kean's informative application

Campus Life > Kean Un-Corq-ed: How Cougar Link Is Powered!
Kean Un-Corq-ed: How Cougar Link Is Powered!

Corq is a new and accessible way to find the events happening on campus, and is available on both the Apple Store and Google Play Store

Marcus Van Diver

Want to know what runs Cougar Link, the easily accessible application that Kean University students use to find out information about events happening on campus? Look no further!

The mobile application known as "Corq" -- a system used by collegiate institutions across the country that helps pinpoint over 150,000 extra-curricular events on campuses annually -- helps academic institutions discover and locate these events and opportunities that are of interest to a school's student body. 

Additionally, the system that gives students the details to find these events help the colleges and universities tremendously. The application helps schools of higher education explain their out-of-the-classroom experiences in an easy, accessible and interactive way to parents and school administrators, without the hassle of students having to ask around their campus about events.

Kean's Cougar Link is part of Corq's nationwide educational information system known as "Collegiate Link," which sponsors over 250 college campuses nationwide as their co-curricular activity informant.

Here's how the app works: 

  • Once downloaded from the Apple Store for iPhones or Google Play Store for Android phones, the application will ask the user for the school they attend.
  • Once a student has tapped their school into the search bar, the application coordinates with the student's school, showing a list of daily, upcoming and nearby collegiate events and organizations throughout a school and its community.
  • If a student needs to know the ticket information of an event or when it starts, details about an event will be explicitly explained to the user. Nearby events can also be tracked down on the website's campus map that will show users where these events will be.

Also, the app caters to the interests of its user. Whether a student is looking for the school's next baseball game and its location, or is simply looking for a free meal to enjoy, a search filter can be added by pressing the small white cone on the top right part of the screen. The categories range from arts and music all the way to education, so that every student who uses the application will be able to attend meetings and events that interest them.

The Corq application that runs Cougar Link on mobile devices was created by Campus Labs, a company devoted to serving students on college campuses through providing insight to the many campus administrators over student engagement, proper educational instruction, analytics, retention and the overall success of the company's sponsored campuses' curriculum programs. 

As for the history of Campus Labs, the company was founded by Eric Reich and Michael Weisman, two University of Buffalo students and roommates who, after attending an out-of-state football game, came up with the idea of wanting to start a business that fed off of collecting student feedback to help improve campus services.

The two would then go on to enter a technology competition and win and earn a $25,000 grant. This gave them the confidence to start a website by the name StudentVoice

Hard work and consultation made StudentVoice become Campus Labs, and by 2008, the company expanded its services to employ over 30 members of its office in Buffalo, New York. Through consulting with campus administrators over institutional challenges, the two entrepreneurs would expand their website to over 350 campuses across the country. 

Western New York credited the Campus Labs team as "being one of the best success startup stories since the introduction of the 21st century."

Corq was subsequently created in the midst of Reich's and Weisman's business expansion. 

The Corq app lets students enjoy all of the benefits of using the Collegiate Link website on the go, without the hassle of just having to ask around campus or use a personal computer to find events happening throughout a school's community.

More information on the Corq application can be found on Cougar Link and Corq's official website.


about the author
Van Diver Marcus - web

Marcus Van Diver, Staff Writer
vandivem@kean.edu

Marcus Van Diver, a senior majoring in communications with a concentration in mass media, has been a Staff Writer for The Cougar’s Byte since October of 2016. He has aspirations of working in the field of sports media and wishes to be a broadcaster, journalist or radio host for any major news corporation. His hobbies include, reading, exercising and playing sports. He is an avid fan of his New York Giants, Boston Celtics, Philadelphia Phillies and New York Rangers.