THE PENDULUM
Volume 29, Issue 16
February 12, 2004
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www.elon.edu/pendulum
Koury business center to become reality in 2005
60,000 sqmre-foot center will be built on intramural fields, says dean of Love School of Business
Jessica Patchett
Editor-in-Chief
Construction of the new 60,000
square-foot Ernest A. Koury Sr.
Business Center, which will be
located on O’Kelly Avenue north of
McMichael science center, will
begin no later than March 2005, said
John Burbridge, dean of the Martha
and Spencer Love School of
Business. The project will be under
way in time for Elon to celebrate the
building’s groundbreaking with
2005 spring convocation speaker
Sen. John Glenn in April and will be
completed by fall 2006.
The building will house faculty
offices, a dean suite, student break
out rooms, a “digital lecture hall”
and 20 classrooms - more than
enough to house the business pro
gram, Burbridge said.
“This is a building that’s not just
for the business school, but for all of
Elon,” Burbridge said, referring to
additional classroom space, student
study rooms and new facilities other
Jeff Heyer / Photo Editor
The business center (center) will house more than 20 classrooms of different formats, a dean's suite and faculty offices.
Four other buildings are still in the discussion stage and will not be funded in any part by the $9.5 million needed for
the main building The other buildings could house dining, residence halls or additional office space.
departments may utilize. iting deans in the business school’s Schools of Business. The three
Elon administrators included the quest for accreditation by The deans who visited this Sunday
project plans in a presentation to vis- Association to Advance Collegiate dirough Wednesday will use their
impressions of the business school’s
progress to make a decision regard
ing accreditation by April.
Schematic drawings, plans that
precede architectural designs, are
near completion, according to
Gerald Whittington, vice president
for business, finance and technolo
gy. Spillman-Farmer and
Associates, the architecture firm
responsible for Academic Pavilion
houses, will have construction draw
ings for the business center complet
ed this summer. After Elon secures a
contractor late this summer, ground
breaking of the business center will
depend on fund raising.
“We have raised $7 million so
far. We have $2.5 million to go,”
Burbridge said. If all $9.5 million
needed for the business center is col
lected before March 2005, construc
tion may begin sooner, Whittington
said.
Crews have begun preparing the
Elon Homes for Children site for
See BUSINESS p. 10
Blackboard upgrades underway, online services to be expanded
Ashley Feibish
Asst. News Editor
Elon s department of campus technology
has brought a new Blackboard system and
improvements to other Internet resources. For
students. Blackboard 6 is only slightly differ
ent from the previous version, Blackboard 5.
One new feature is the portal component of
Blackboard 6.
The portal will allow students to customize
Blackboard to be,st suit their needs. The tabs at
the top of the page after login are the first steps
in developing full use of the portal feature.
Over the next several months, modules
'^>11 be added to Blackboard, representing the
integration of the portal system.
The preliminary audience of the portal sys
tem will be faculty, students and staff. Some
secondary audiences will have limited access
to the portal’s features. The use of a portal will
consolidate many of the operations performed
through Blackboard and Datatel.
Faculty will enjoy several new and
improved features, including a customizable
course menu and the observer role, which
allows faculty to monitor the work and activi
ties of particular students. Faculty members
are now able to aeate assignments and post
. them for students to complete. A lightweight
chat feature allows for online sessions, as well
as a virtual classroom that allows a class to
communicate online.
“This is an entirely new generation of
Blackboard,” said Patty Brown, associate
director of instructional design and develop
ment. She said she expects students and facul
ty will have full use of the portal feature,
which is similar to my Yahoo, by summer or
fall of 2004.
Brian Baute, assistant director of infoima-
tion systems and technology for web technol
ogy, said the new portal will be integrated with
Blackboard, so eventually, all online services
should be accessible through the same inter
face.
“There will be no solid line between
them,” Baute said. “Blackboard and Datatel
[Elon OnTrack] will eventually start to. blur
and those systems will start to talk to each
other.”
New content will include a bookmarking
feature, a dictionary, a thesaurus and a calcu
lator. These features will be introduced over
the next several months.
Technology specialists said they hope all
students will eventually be able to register for
parking and housing online using the new
system.
Ron Driscoll, director of information sys
tems and technology, said a committee will
decide what the portal will look like and how
See BLACKBOARD p. 10
P1 4 • students and organizations doing T> C • Men's basketball wins four of last five games;
~ ^ entine's Day? JL • Next game Feb. 14 at East Tennessee State.