This past summer, the Grace Hall boardroom was renovated in order to provide a new way for students to be engaged during class.
The new board room will be used as a space for meetings and classes to be held.
“We have built the technology infrastructure in this room so that we can better serve both our traditional undergraduates and our non-traditional students who are taking degree completion programs in the evening and weekends,” Dr. Jeff Gingerich, Provost and Vice-President for Academic Affairs, said.
The new room will also serve as a virtual classroom that will help students to learn side-by-side international students overseas. The room includes a vast amount of cutting-edge equipment, such as video cameras and large screens, that will make video-chatting with international students possible.
“We needed the capability on campus to do synchronous online education to support our international efforts in Latin America as well as to support our efforts in executive education for our new doctoral programs and degree completion programs for adult learners,” president, Dr. Donald Taylor, said.
Different groups will also hold meetings in the new space, such as the board of trustees, faculty and staff.
“A soundproof, protracting wall has been put in place so that the room can be separated into two and two separate meetings can happen at the same time,” Gingerich said.
The relationships made by Dr. Taylor overseas this past summer in Japan, China and Argentina will benefit the classroom with international virtual learning sessions.
