A screenshot from the Events tab of the MacEwan Student Life app. 

The new MacEwan Student Life app gives students a space to engage with campus community

At the start of the 2026 winter semester, MacEwan Student Life officially launched the MacEwan Student Life App, a digital platform designed to help MacEwan students not only connect with one another, but easily track their involvement on campus outside of the classroom. 

“The platform is more than just an app; it’s a full student experience system,” said Brett Farquharson, manager of MacEwan Student Life, in an email to the Griff.  

Designed to be “intentionally simple,” the main purpose of the app is to give students a platform to track their Student Experience Record, as well as manage campus events and engage with the campus community. Bonus tools, such as the ConnectMe and news feed features make the app function like many popular social media platforms without directly competing with them. 

“The platform is more than just an app; it’s a full student experience system,”

– Brett Farquharson

“Our goal is to give students a convenient, campus-focused space to engage,” said Farquharson.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, MacEwan Student Life ran a Discord server that operated similarly to the new app. But since Discord is a third party social media platform, it meant that the server could not be properly moderated, and Student Life had no control over who was using it, where the data was being stored, and could not verify that only MacEwan students were in the server.  

“It was always vulnerable to being shut down or disrupted,” said Farquharson.

These concerns over privacy and security helped prompt the search for a new system. 

So, in 2024, MacEwan Student Life partnered with Ready Education to start developing the app, with core development largely taking place during spring and summer 2025. 

The development of the app was funded through the Student Life operating budget. However, MacEwan would not disclose exactly how much the platform cost. 

“Our goal is to give students a convenient, campus-focused space to engage, ”

– Brett Farquharson

After thorough testing and an extensive privacy review, the app was soft-launched in November 2025 to new students starting in the winter 2026 semester, before being officially launched on Jan. 14 to the entire student body.  

It is still too early to gauge whether or not the app has been successful, but MacEwan Student Life will be looking at how effective it is at helping students stay informed and engaged as well as how effective it is at helping students document their co-curricular involvement when determining the app’s success. In just a few short months though, student engagement with the app is already proving promising. 

“Many students are actively self-tracking their experiences on their Student Experience Record, and SAMU Groups are currently the most frequently tracked involvement area,” said Farquharson.

“We’re also seeing new student student connections forming in the Community Nest Program feeds and the general campus feed, where students are beginning to engage more with the campus community.” 

With files from Jesse Roma.