Campuses across the state tune into ribbon cutting
Governor Gary Herbert visited the USU campus Wednesday afternoon for the dedication of the new Distance Education Building. After a question and answer session with students, Herbert, USU President Stan Albrecht and other officials cut the virtual ribbon on the new building at 4 p.m.
The ceremony was broadcasted to various distance campuses across the state.
“Utah State is just one of the real jewels of our higher education system,” Herbert said.
Though the 40,000 square foot building only has 12 classrooms, broadcasts will be sent to 250 additional locations throughout the state. The building will deliver courses to more than 12,000 distance education students.
“This building increases the capacity on the Logan campus to be able to broadcast more,” said Robert Wagner, associate vice provost. He said 350 courses are being broadcasted each week this semester.
Wagner said experiments are also being made with greater interactive technology, allowing students in distance education classrooms to be more connected to the main campus. The building is designated as a Cisco beta site, meaning distance students will be able to interact with the teachers through a system called Internet Video Conferencing (IVC.)
Wagner said the new technology doesn’t affect student fees, and the tuition for students to attend a broadcast course form the new building is the same as if they were to take a traditional class.
“The reason we do this is so that students can experience the classroom and interact with their instructors,” said Ronda Menlove, senior vice-provost.
“I would dare say there is no other building in the United States that’s as technology-rich as this building,” she said.
Menlove said it is a truly an innovative building.
“A gem, a true gem,” she said. “I hope you’ll have the opportunity to see it and experience it. Can you imagine the electricity that flows out of this building at night? And I’m told that it glows.”
Angie Thompson, a distance education student and accounting major from Delta, said she was a single mom with three small children when she began her studies at USU.
“When I found out that Utah State offered degrees that I could earn entirely through the regional campus, I was so excited because at that moment I knew that my dreams could become a reality,” Thompson said. “USU Delta and the distance education program has been the bridge to me accomplishing my goals.”
Thompson said the courses are flexible, and she only had classes once a week. It fit well with her schedule and her financial situation. Thompson doesn’t regret having an off-campus experience.
“I’m a big believer that everything in your life make you who you are,” Thompson said. “I am who I am today because of the distance education program.”
She said self motivation and time management were some of the things she learned.
“There’s always learning experiences from everything,” she said.
Herbert said he understands how important education is to the state’s future.
“I also realize we cannot have long term sustained economic growth if we don’t have good skilled labor, and that’s education,” Herbert said.
Herbert said he’s created a goal of “66 by 2020,” which means 66 percent of the adult population in Utah will some kind of post-high school education by 2020, whether it be trade school, a two-year certificate or a full college degree.
“If we do that, our economy will in fact continue to grow and expand and be as good as it can be,” Herbert said. “It’s not just aspirations, not just something that would be nice to do, it’s something that is a necessity if we want to have the economy to be as robust as it’s capable of being.”
President Stan Albrecht said one of the criticisms of higher education is that it’s slow to adapt to changing technologies, new teaching methods and meeting the needs of the student body.
“This is a great step forward for Utah State University,” Albrecht said.
He said this new technology puts USU at the very forefront of the 21st century approach in business and higher education.
“Our university has taken a very aggressive and proactive approach in both developing and implementing technologies that will define the future of educational delivery,” Albrecht said,
– tmera.bradley@aggiemail.usu.edu