DISTRIBUTING GIS ACROSS A LIBERAL ARTS CAMPUS: ALBION COLLEGE

Albion College has shown an ongoing commitment to GIS, expanding from its original academic department, geology, to other academic and non-academic departments. The first GIS course at Albion College was taught in the geology department in 1993. To get the program equipped, hardware including workstations, a server, digitizing tablets, scanners, printers, and ESRI software were purchased with the help of an NSF-ILI grant the following year. The geology program now offers a GIS minor, three GIS-related courses (introductory and advanced GIS courses, and a remote sensing/GIS course), and is incorporating GIS and GPS exercises in both introductory (natural hazards) and advanced (geology field camp) courses, with future expansion into other courses such as intro. geology and geomorphology. Graduates from these GIS courses have successfully found jobs in consulting and city government and have gone on to complete graduate research using GIS. One past student is now an ESRI-authorized instructor. Recently, the use of GIS has spread from geology through other departments as part of course exercises and labs, particularly in the biology department. NITLE GIS courses have helped raise the profile of GIS throughout campus. These courses are offered to faculty, staff, and librarians of affiliated colleges like Albion, allowing free introduction and instruction in GIS. As a result, non-academic campus offices have started to show interest in GIS applications. Additional interest in GIS around campus has been spawned by materials produced as part of GIS-course exercises and senior theses in various academic departments which utilize GIS. For examples, the facilities crew uses a database of trees on campus and disability services are creating Braille maps from GIS maps of campus infrastructure such as sidewalks, lampposts, and building footprints. Both were created by students as part of class exercises. In future semesters, we will work with city planners to design course exercises that create useful products and to enhance community-campus connections. Albion College is in the final stages of completing its new science complex and has shown its commitment to GIS as a teaching, learning, and research tool by providing space and funding for new computers, data, and other equipment including an ASD field spectrometer.