Grant to enhance ACU technology For immediate release May 24, 1999 Abilene Christian University will receive a $309,000 Higher Education Technology Advancement Grant. The Telecommunications Infrastructure Fund Board, a state agency in Austin, has notified K.B. Massingill, director of Adams Center for Teaching Excellence and project coordinator of the grant committee, of this award. Massingill and Marsha Harper, director of Mabee Library, worked together in applying for this grant. According to Massingill, the grant money will be divided into thirds for making improvements across campus. One-third of the grant money will be used for library improvement. Most of the planned improvements for the library will focus on transferring existing paper, sound and video documents into electronic documents that will be available on student servers and may eventually be available on the internet. Other additions to the network include a color printer and a CD-ROM server that will allow more than one person to use the database at a time. Harper is excited about the service opportunity this equipment will create. She hopes to provide more electronic opportunities for people in Abilene to use the resources of the ACU library. One-third of the money will be used for video conferencing and distance education. Video conferencing has been a valuable asset to ACU's education opportunities, and more groups are wanting to use this medium, Massingill said. A second, larger facility will be built to accommodate more people and to reduce scheduling conflicts with the existing video conference room. The other third will be used to improve student servers on campus and possibly alumni services. The student servers are already being improved as part of the CTE's 5-year plan of technological improvements, so this money will assist in upgrading the equipment, he said. One potential benefit may be a lifetime email system for ACU alumni. "The grant money leverages what we are already trying to accomplish with our 5-year plan of improvements," says Massingill. "This just makes our plans more robust." Massingill discovered this grant by looking at the state of Texas website which publishes grant opportunities including those available from the Telecommunications Infrastructure Fund Board. Up until this year, ACU has not been eligible for any because the first ones offered by the board were for state universities and 2-year colleges. --30-- If you are a member of the media who would like more information about this release, please contact Tom Craig, director of media and community relations, at craigt@nicanor.acu.edu or call 915-674-2692. Last update: May 24, 1999 This page is maintained by Tom Craig, craigt@nicanor.acu.edu. http://www.acu.edu/people/news/990524-grant.html