Page 8 - College Planning & Management, November 2017

Campus Scene IN THE SPOTLIGHT
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Partners around the globe. More informa-
tion is available at www.profmi.org.
Kennesaw State
Receives Grant to
Increase STEM
Kennesaw State University’s (KSU) College of Computing and Software Engineering has received a $36,000 grant to launch a program promoting computing and Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) fields to middle school students.
The award, part of State Farm’s Systems Priority School 2017 cohort, will support
the university’s Sustainably Improv-
ing Interest, Access and Readiness for STEM+Computing program, which is de- signed to engage middle school students and teachers through on-site peer mentoring and hands-on activities with the Georgia-based university’s faculty and students.
The grant will help cover salaries for 12 KSU student mentors and two faculty personnel in the program’s first year and includes a one-week computing camp for area STEM teachers.
UND School of Medicine
and Health Sciences
Wins Design Award
A project designed by JLG Architects at the University of North Dakota (UND) in Grand Forks has earned an award from the North Dakota Chapter of the American Institute of Architects.
A Merit Award was given for the new four-level, 375,000-square-foot School of Medicine and Health Sciences facility. A shared, collaborative learning environ- ment, it provides UND with the oppor- tunity to “re-think everything” about the way it delivers medical and health sciences education in order to develop
a first-of-its-kind program. Each of the four floors features a Main Street — a wide corridor lined with flexible class- rooms and labs. Anchoring the North and South ends of Main Street are pairs
of Learning Communities, each serving 100 students from all eight disciplines.
There is no library in the building, so the only dedicated quiet spaces are within the Communities. The Main Floor is de- signed for public access and includes an auditorium, gathering spaces, a cafeteria and a highly detailed simulation center. Every space is designed with access to sunlight, including the anatomy class- room — unusual in medical education.
Collaborative Arts Center Opens at Wellesley College
After two years of construction, the formal celebration of the opening of Pendleton West, Wellesley College’s new interdisciplinary arts building, kicked off in mid-October.
The Pendleton West renovation, which began in June 2015, included an overhaul of the existing space and a 10,000-square- foot addition for both visual and musical arts that incorporates classroom, studio, rehearsal and intimate performance spaces to flexibly accommodate the needs of Wellesley’s emerging and traditional arts and media programs.
The renovated building, on the college’s Wellesley, MA-based campus, features right-sized, environmentally controlled studios to accommodate art- ists working in a wide range of media. It also contains flexible classroom and stor- age spaces and faculty and staff offices. In the new addition, a music salon provides a venue for student recitals, chamber music performances, rehearsals, lessons and classroom teaching as well as a large music hall that will be acoustically tuned for large ensemble rehearsals. CPM
Hot Tips
This Month
Mail Services
Mail Center
Management
THE E-COMMERCE BOOM HAS CHANGED
student buying habits. Many schools are learning how to receive, sort and deliver an exponentially higher number of packages, quickly and accurately, to thousands of students every day. This high volume of incoming packages is the new normal that is straining campus mailing services, increasing operating expenses and overwhelming mail center employees.
Smart mail center managers cope via tracking systems. No more handwritten package-delivery notices. An inbound package tracking system scans packages the second they arrive, prints a barcoded label for the package and generates an email notice for the student recipient. Students receive the email in real time, which encourages fast pickup and reduces the amount of time that packages pile up in your mail center.
An inbound package tracking system also gives you another huge benefit: real-time data. You can see the exact number of pack- ages your mail center receives daily by carrier as well as the amount of time a package sits in your mail center before a student picks it up. Instant data at your fingertips translates into stronger reporting up to management.
Finding packages during the pick-up pro- cess gets easier, too. Packages with barcode labels facing out can be stacked to maximize shelf space and can be accessed easily for checkpoints in the process. Plus, barcode tracking reduces the number of lost or missing inbound packages to almost zero.
Grab end-to-end control by automating your inbound parcel management today. Who wins? You. Your mail center staff. And, most importantly, your school’s students.
Christopher M. O’Brien is executive vice president, Communication and Shipping Solu- tions, for Neopost USA (www.neopostusa.com). He can be reached at c.obrien@neopost.com or 203/301-3400.
8 COLLEGE PLANNING & MANAGEMENT / NOVEMBER 2017
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