Each year, most of our planned classroom technology upgrades are scheduled during the summer months. The AV Installations team identified the rooms receiving new equipment or maintenance work and with faculty input from the Academic Technology Council. Most rooms received significant improvements last summer in preparation for the SMUFlex experience. Therefore, this summer’s work included fewer major overhauls and more enhancements or maintenance repairs than usual, but still offered improvements in over 100 rooms.
Facilities teams reset the rooms earlier this summer to return to full capacity and removed the social distancing signage. As the fall semester drew near, our IT teams went to every classroom, tested all equipment, cleaned the whiteboards, counted the desk chairs, and verified that the room was ready to go. With help from facilities, desks were back in their correct rooms and ready for the first day.
Planning for next summer will begin in just a few weeks. We have the added complexity of the Cox classrooms going offline due to the building renovations. Our plan includes repurposing some of that equipment for classrooms and other upgrades and enhancements that are needed. Faculty who have specific requests for classroom technology should direct their questions or feedback to the Academic Technology Service Directors or their Academic Technology Council representative.
