School of Information Technology students looking for a place to study in Old Union used to sit lining the walls of corridors; a lucky few could sit at tables in the hall on the lower level. Now they have a spacious room with plenty of power outlets, both Ethernet and Wi-Fi options for connectivity, and plenty of options for studying.
Those who remember 116 Old Union as the home of Rapid Print will find it hard to recognize. In place of copy machines, there are now comfortable chairs with laptop arms as well as small tables for more sociable studying.
At one end of the room, two areas have been partitioned off for group work. To promote collaboration, each contains a large monitor hooked to a computer running Solstice, a software solution for simultaneous sharing of laptop and mobile devices on a single screen. The upper part of the walls is covered with whiteboard paint to further encourage students to share ideas.
The room is open Sunday–Friday during standard lab hours, but is also available via card access to all IT students any time the building is open. The collaboration spaces are proving so popular that a SharePoint calendar has been created for students to schedule them.
