Dean's Column

Dedication of The Regina Jennings Distance Learning Room

On Friday, April 16, 1999, we dedicated the Regina Jennings Distance Learning and Technology Room – a state-of-the-art classroom facility. The following remarks were a part of the dedication ceremony.

While the faculty is the heart and the soul of a university, the facilities in which faculty teach are important to faculty members’ ability to fully realize his or her potential as a teacher, and thus the opportunity for the students to learn as much as possible. As the twentieth century draws to a close, it is safe to say that we have entered into a new age of technology in which technology has changed and will continue to change the ways in which we live, including the ways we teach and learn. Today, we dedicate a room which brings to our College of Law state-of-the-art learning technology, a room which will enable us to share the expertise and teaching that takes place here with all corners of the state and, in fact, this country. In addition, the room will enable us to bring to our students and faculty the teaching and learning that is available elsewhere in this state, as well as elsewhere in this country. Today, at the West Virginia University College of Law we have moved to the forefront of the technology available in law schools of this country.

I have often referred to our law school as a community. Regina, your life is a wonderful illustration of what it means to be a part of this community. You were one of the caretakers of this building when it opened in 1974. The special pride that you took in our new building was evident in your work in those days, and your continued pride in being a part of our law school community is evidenced by the gift which has made possible a state-of-the-art learning center for our College of Law. Thanks to your generosity, the way that we teach and learn in this building will be significantly enhanced. We thank you for continuing to care about the College of Law and about our physical facilities. We thank you for caring about our students and our faculty, and you should take great pride in the fact that through your gift, your caring and making a difference will forever be a part of this law school.

Thank you, Regina, for making it possible.

Associate Dean Marjorie McDiarmid explained the significance of Regina’s gift to the College of Law as follows.

The future is always at some fundamental level unknowable and in no field is this more true than in assessing the development of technology. Last evening I wrote these words with a piece of plastic on a hand held computer screen three inches high by two inches across. That computer weighs less than a small paper back book and is considerably smaller. Fewer than ten years ago a portable computer weighed in excess of twenty pounds and, if you were lucky, fit under an airline seat. So it is with some reluctance that I speak about the future implications of the Jennings distance learning room. But if you will grant me the expectation of being at least partly wrong, I will make some educated guesses.

In the short term future, it will let us do what we now do better by linking us much more closely to the State of West Virginia and the world. As we will see in the upcoming demonstration, we can bring an on-line webcast from Yugoslavia or an interactive lecture from Charleston. Faculty who now have to travel great distances to join us will be available as if they

were next door. We in turn can make our teaching available throughout the State and across the county.

The less knowable implications arise as technology lets us do things we don’t do now. To give you a relatively recent example, as little as three years ago, the only practical way for an entire class to carry on a discussion was to be in one place and talk orally. Now through threaded e-mail and on line chats, a full class can engage in productive dialog over massive distances and at the convenience of all the parties. Will this become not an adjunct but a primary technology? Will some of our classes be not only distant but asynchronous? If so, the technology in the Jennings room will let students and faculty participate.

Our current level of interactivity, even in the most lively Socratic class, is still in essence one-on-one. But computer based interactive programs can require increasingly sophisticated interactivity from every student. Will we develop the expertise to move this technology beyond

peripheral drill and practice exercises and into sophisticated problem solving environments? If so, the multi-media capacities of the Jennings classroom will bring those environments to life.

Or will the next thing be something we don't even imagine yet?

Regardless of what is to come, the Jennings classroom is our window on the world of emergent technologies and our entre into that future. It gives us capacities that few law schools have. May we have the imagination and the boldness to use them effectively.

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For the past two years, it has been my privilege to work with Marjorie McDiarmid as the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs. Marjorie had planned to return to full-time teaching and research two years ago, but when Teree Foster accepted the deanship at DePaul, she agreed to continue as Associate Dean to help assure continuity. When I was named as dean, she agreed to remain one more year to assist me in getting my deanship off to a smooth start. I sincerely appreciate Marjorie putting the law school’s administrative needs ahead of her own personal preference for the past two years. Marjorie is a very capable administrator, a person I have been able to rely and depend upon, a person of good judgment and who has the best interest of our College of Law at heart. I enjoyed a very good working relationship with Marjorie and shall miss working with her on a daily basis. Personally, and on behalf of the entire law school community, I thank Marjorie for her hard work and significant contributions as Associate Dean.

The return of Marjorie to full-time faculty status does mean that I will have the opportunity to work with another as the associate dean, and I am pleased to report that Professor Joyce McConnell has accepted the position effective July, 1. I am very confident that the Office of Academic Affairs will continue to be in good hands and that members of the bench and bar who do not know Joyce will enjoy getting to know her and working with her in the years ahead. My thanks to Marjorie for all she had done for our College of Law, and to Joyce for accepting this important position.