Curators approve WiFi improvements, general education change

Lincoln University 150th anniversary logo
Lincoln University 150th anniversary logo

By the end of the year, Lincoln University students, staff and visitors should find improved WiFi services in most campus academic buildings west of Chestnut Street.

LU Curators approved spending up to $208,000 for the work, using money remaining from a Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act (SAFRA) grant.

The board also approved a change in the general education requirements, dropping one course from the requirements and adding two others.

Joseph Watkins - chief of staff to LU President Keven Rome - told the board in an Aug. 31 memo: "The SAFRA grant has restrictions and can only be used for activities which enhance student success."

With the board's approval, the work is to begin immediately.

The school loses the grant money if it's not earmarked before the end of September.

Watkins and Said Sewell, LU's provost and vice president for academic affairs, told the board the SAFRA money had been used for other projects that have been completed, and the WiFi enhancement is another project allowed under the grant.

"When we look at our infrastructure, with advancements in technology, equipment is outdated very quickly," Rome told the News Tribune.

"We're going to have to make continuous investments - and most universities aren't set up where they can just invest millions of dollars every few years."

Watkins told the board: "If we wanted to bring our infrastructure up, it would cost $2 million to $3 million."

Investing "a little each time" appears to be the best way to finance improvements, Rome said, adding he hopes the state will look at investing in technology improvements for all Missouri's public colleges and universities because all have similar needs.

"One of the things about IT and the infrastructure is, regardless of how large or small (a school is), you still have some necessary components to it," Rome said, "and it costs, sometimes, the smaller institutions as much as the larger institutions because we still need the same technology."

He said students don't seem to be choosing one institution over another because of their technology - they just expect schools to be able to handle whatever devices they bring to campus.

"They come with multiple devices," he noted. "When this first happened, maybe a student had a phone.

"Now they have a phone, an iPad, a computer and who knows what else."

Watkins said the enhancements will expand what were described as bottlenecks in carrying and transmitting data to and from all those devices, making it easier for more students to use internet connections at the same time.

Rome told the board the new school semester is off to a good start.

They won't have enrollment numbers until next week, he said, but on-campus housing has filled all but 40 beds - an improvement considering the last two years LU had to rent motel space because there were more students than available residence hall beds.

Curators last March approved a nearly $2.17 million contract to renovate Martin Hall, a closed dormitory, and re-open it with an added 129 beds in 59 rooms in time for fall classes.

Jerome Offord, LU's dean of administration and student affairs, told the board this summer's "Project Jump Start" was successful in bringing more students to school early, to start learning how to be successful.

Those students spent the bulk of the day in classrooms with tutoring provided in the afternoons and evenings, along with special activities and events.

Eight percent of the students completed the summer program with a 4.0 GPA, while another 51 percent earned a 3.0 GPA or higher.

And 84 percent of those students "are in good academic standing and enrolled for fall courses," Offord said.

Curators accepted the Faculty Senate's and LU Education department's recommendation a "personal and community health" course be dropped from general education requirements, and replaced with courses on the foundations of physical education and wellness and on the psychology of personal adjustment.

Link:

www.lincolnu.edu