Jackson State is “more than a world-class university,” a senior executive of Lockheed Martin Corporation told JSU President Carolyn W. Meyers after touring the campus on Tuesday.
“You are on the forefront of reinventing education,” observed Gerald G. Harvey, Jr., vice president of legislative affairs with the corporation’s Washington, D.C., operations.
Meyers credited her staff, during the meeting with corporate and university officials in her offices. “I believe in listening to the advice of experts,” she said, adding that JSU has “a whole cadre of talented people.”
One of those “talented people” visted during the tour was Dr. Robert Blaine, dean of Undergraduate Studies and CyberLearning. He explained the state-of-the-art INNOVATE Center at H.T. Sampson Library to Harvey and Vernon Ross, director, and Derek W. McGowan, program manager, of the corporation’s science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) and higher education programs.
Blaine said that the university has embarked on a paperless textbook system now in prototype that, once implemented, will save students $1.2 million per semester in textbook costs.
The interactive curricula developed by JSU faculty and staff will reduce textbooks costs of up to $300 per book to a $9.95 downloadable version for use with Apple iPads supplied to students by the university.
Blaine called the information systems developed at JSU “the democratization of cyberlearning.”
“We had a wireless system that, charitably, was built on budget cuts,” said Blaine, prior to the wholesale upgrading of all facets of Internet connectivity at the university. Now, with total campus upgrades, JSU is “a 21st century learning environment.”
The redefined curricula include College of Science, Engineering and Technology (CSET) to liberal arts, English, math, biology. “We’re the first to do this,” he said, paring faculty and staff expertise with interactive technology from Apple and other providers.
A result is that a portion of the $9.95 per downloadable textbook now goes back to the department that produced the digital content, which in turn lowers costs to students by funding creation, maintenance and expansion of content, Blaine said.
After Blaine’s presentation, Harvey said that with a daughter in college, the textbook cost hit home with him. “It’s fantastic,” he said. “What I see here can change the way education can be delivered.”
“I’m blown away by this,” Harvey said.
The corporate officials also met with CSET department heads from engineering, computer science, math, chemistry and biochemistry and toured other areas of the campus.
CSET Dean Dr. Richard Alo said the purpose of the site visit was to show “what we can do” and build on collaboration and greater partnership.
Ross, a 1982 JSU alum and member of the board of the JSU National Alumni Association, said that JSU’s Ph.D. program in data science is rare in higher education and should be better known nationwide.
Lockheed Martin officials during this site visit announced five direct hires of students starting in June; with 55 JSU alumni already hired.
“I can’t wait to talk to other people about this,” Harvey said.