Geauga Campus to Add New 'Zoom Room'
The Lake-Geauga Fund of the Cleveland Foundation has awarded Kent State University Geauga Campus with a $20,000 grant toward a student emergency fund and technology advances.
The Lake-Geauga Fund of the Cleveland Foundation has awarded Kent State University Geauga Campus with a $20,000 grant toward a student emergency fund and technology advances.
The grant will be split evenly between the two initiatives, according to a June 15 press release, with half of the award earmarked for the installation of a Zoom Room at the Burton campus.
This will include state-of-the-art technology allowing the institution to deliver synchronous and asynchronous courses to students.
The remaining $10,000 will assist Kent State students residing in Lake and Geauga counties facing financial hardship due to COVID-19.
“This award is a godsend for our students,” said Lance Williams, director of special projects and operations at Kent State Geauga. “We will continue to seek out opportunities to help students in need within our communities and scale our capacity to deliver distance learning within the region.”
The Kent State regional campus system has implemented the use of Zoom software since 2018 in classrooms that are appropriately called ‘Zoom Rooms.’
“These Zoom Rooms provide students with the ability to take classes at their home campus without having to travel to other campus locations, access expert faculty in their respective fields, and provide dynamic interaction with faculty and students from across the Kent State Regional Campus system,” Williams said.
“Prior to the pandemic, the overwhelming majority of our coursework was delivered face-to-face, with the remainder being offered in either an exclusively online format, or synchronously through the use of our Zoom Rooms,” he explained. “As we continue with both remote and synchronous instruction, our faculty will continue to use these Zoom Rooms to teach coursework that students need to stay on track as they pursue their degrees.”
For the remaining $10,000 of the award, Kent State Geauga will offer Kent State students living in Lake or Geauga counties student aid awards through the campus’s Emergency Relief Fund.
“This fund is specifically for those students who are currently experiencing financial hardship, food insecurity, unexpected medical or childcare expenses, housing instability or transportation barriers hindering their ability to succeed as a student,” Williams said.
Students living in Geauga and Lake counties who applied for CARES Act relief and were not funded will have their prior applications considered for possible student aid, according to the release. Funding will be awarded based on several factors, including individual needs and the circumstances surrounding their need for funding.
“Kent State Geauga sends its sincere appreciation and gratitude to the Lake-Geauga Fund of the Cleveland Foundation for this significant and timely award,” Dean Angela Spalsbury said.
