Information technology has not just expanded access to programs and services; it has literally transformed the ease with which students, employees, and the regional community can access them.

Through the State System's SSHEnet, Millersville is networked with the rest of the System and the Internet and has access to data, network support, and videoconferencing. Millersville collaborates with the Planning Implementation Advisory Council for professional development and videoconferencing resources.

With the help of a $425,000 Link-to-Learn grant from the state, we are collaborating with regional partners in health care, vocational training, technical education, and telecommunications to lead the design and implementation of a regional infrastructure for high speed Internet access and robust interconnections. This will permit Web-based videoconference-based training and educational applications, opening new distance education opportunities for our students and giving our region better access to a broad range of educational resources and opportunities.

In 1998-1999 Millersville, Shippensburg, and West Chester Universities received an $800,000 grant from the State System to establish the Virtual University, a three-year pilot project in distance education. Through the Virtual University, students from anywhere in the world already have access to a few of our courses through the Web. Plans are underway to develop college level distance learning courses for high school students and professional development programs for teachers.

Through our affiliation with the Community of Agile Partners in Education, a consortium of public and private universities, colleges, and K-12 schools designed to share distance learning technologies, we have access to bridging facilities for videoconferencing that have been used for faculty professional development.

Examples of other ways that information technologies have expanded access to our programs and services are listed in Appendix 7-2.