Many classrooms, offices, a large lecture hall and a 100-seat auditorium are housed within the newly built, four-story, state-of-the-art computer-intensive building known as the Robert C. Vance Academic Center. The School of Business, departments of Communications, Design, Economics and Criminal Justice will soon call this building home. The Robert C. Vance Academic Center will also temporarily house the department of Alumni
Affairs. The building is scheduled to open this
spring.The nine classrooms, as well as a lecture hall on the first floor, are computer intensive, enabling state-of-the-art capabilities for both teaching and learning. The raised level rows of seating are conducive for classes requiring a great deal of interaction.
"This building has been wired for the future," commented Scott Evon, Manager of Computer Services. "It is connected to the recently installed gigabit network", Evon continued, explaining about the fiber optic cable within the building that connects each classroom. "By investing now in this infrastructure, the university will have a solid foundation on which to grow in the future", said Evon. Every desktop within the building is connected to a 100 megabit switch,
Three-hundred-twenty new computers were purchased for the Robert C. Vance Academic Center, each containing: 866 mhz, Pentium III processors, 250 mg zip, 20 gig hard drive and 256 MB RAM. IKON provided the manpower to unbox and set up the computers, while Amy Magno, Tom Bohlke and the User Support crew diligently spent many hours coordinating the installation of the computers by securing the cables hardware was in working order.
Assistance was provided by Evon’s crew in co-organizing network
installation which was contracted with Jannon Group. Robert Silver and
Arksone Anachack, Instructional Computing area, are responsible for the
quick and efficient installation of software and operating systems in the
labs."There are over 1,700 active drops, making it a very technologically advanced building", said Dr. William Sherman, Chief Information Officer. "This building will house about 36% of active data drops in the university", Sherman added. By adding this building to the campus, 50% more jacks have been added than presently exist on campus. It is both wonderful and amazing the amount of advanced technology we have now acquired with the addition of Robert C. Vance Academic Center.
for a late February 2001
trial run. In the past, matriculated students have used bubble sheets for
course selection for the upcoming semester. Instead, Banner will introduce
course registration via the Web. For the Fall 2001 semester, students will
be registering for classes and paying bills through Banner Web, starting
in the month of April. IVR (integrated voice response) will follow in June
in a similar capacity, allowing add/drops and payment of bills utilizing
Touchnet’s payment gateway server. Twenty-four phone lines will be
available around the clock. A pin number will be assigned to each student
to allow access to each resource. Over time, the Web and IVR solutions
will be enhanced to provide information from the Admissions, Financial
Aid, Records Offices as well as many other areas on campus granting
students with around clock access to their own personal academic
information
videos. This site can deliver anything
that can be videotaped, such as documentaries, course materials,
presentations, demos much in the same way that a television could.
Occupying 24GB of disk space, these videos are on a server that is capable
of delivering approximately sixty hours of content.
The new
HEAT software package will allow HelpDesk personnel to be proactive by
learning where most calls come from, what they are about, thereby allowing
for more training in those specific areas of need.