I got to work at the new UVI Academic Center on St. John this week. It turned out very nice. It has Several video conference rooms, office space and a student lounge area. There are only a few classes going on for the summer session but the fall is looking like a pretty good schedule. St. John students can come to the center to take a class via video conference instead of coming over to St. Thomas. They can also use the space to study or collaborate with students on other campuses. Right now the IT staff on St. Thomas is taking turns working shifts at the St. John center which seems to be working out pretty good. I know I enjoyed going over and looking forward to my next shift at the end of the month.
The St. John community is very excited about it as they should be. UVI on St. John, what a great idea :-)
5 comments:
Where oh where is UVI getting all this money to open another campus? Our gov't just took a 8% salary decrease. Where are the funds coming from to open this campus?
Our gov't is just about BROKE. A campus in STJ wow just wow.
The funds for the St John satellite campus came from a Federal Grant. Not local government funds.
It may have been a Federal Grant, but the overhead of WAPA and salaries has to be paid from the UVI. Sooner or later our local gov't will be paying the bills. Of which the money is running dry.
When jobs are gone, then the UVI wakes up. Sad, to open this during a time when money is non existent in our gov't and our country is in a deep recession.
I'd rather stay optimistic. The St. John Satellite campus has been under works for a long time and it is so nice to see it come to life.
Also if you think about it, UVI is somehow decreasing spending costs to students from St. John. So the 8% government cut is not cut off any further by transportation costs and other legitimate education-related expenses.
There is no better way than investing in education. The center will pay off in increased taxes, improved socio-economic conditions locally, and probably in other indirect revenues from associate services. This is a great move for the people of the UVI's to improve their communities!
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