Installed LCD projectors help Kellogg Business School stay on top

Northwestern’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management builds world-class facilities

Getting to the top isn’t easy. Staying there is even harder. While Northwestern University’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management has consistently been rated one of the top two or three business schools in the country, it takes a serious commitment to keep it there. That commitment must extend to everything: faculty, staff, admissions, facilities and technology must all be world class.

Any Kellogg graduate student will tell you that taking classes there is like having the world at your fingertips. It’s not just the fact that the staff and student body represent over 60 nations. It’s the ability to access information and media from anywhere and everywhere, in every classroom. According to Kevin O’Floy, the school’s Director of Audio Visual Services, making that access easier was the goal when, last summer, the school and United Visual outfitted 22 classrooms with the latest computer, video and projection systems.

Major renovations

The installations were part of three large renovation projects the school completed in 1998: final interior work on Leverone Hall in Evanston, home to Kellogg’s full-time graduate programs (which was extensively remodeled starting in 1994); new classroom and dining facilities in the Allen Center, Kellogg’s executive program and continuing education complex in Evanston; and extensive rebuilding of Wieboldt Hall, home to Kellogg’s evening program in downtown Chicago.

The major goal of these projects was to add much-needed space for the school’s growing student population. Kellogg currently has 1,200 full-time and over 2,000 part-time students in its graduate programs. But there was also a need to bring more consistent quality to the facilities, especially in the older downtown campus. "We had a vision of a student-oriented facility that matched the caliber of the students, faculty and curriculum," says Vennie Lyons, Associate Dean of Kellogg’s evening graduate program. The school added student resource centers, lounge and study areas, group study rooms and administrative offices, as well as new classrooms.

The 22 multimedia classrooms included in the project each now offer a central rack system with a networked PC, VHS and 3/4" VCRs, laptop interface, sound and control systems, plus a high-brightness Sharp LCD projector mounted on the ceiling. With some minor variations, each of the rooms—seven at Leverone Hall, six at the Allen Center, plus nine at Wieboldt Hall—has the same audio visual setup, so that any instructor can teach from anywhere without having to learn a new system. In addition, student tables in most of the new classrooms include network hookups. Kellogg students can tie their laptops into university servers and the World Wide Web without leaving their seats.

Multimedia instruction

It’s no surprise that instructors at Kellogg use a lot of visuals. Many use PowerPoint or Excel in the classroom, while others work with specialized statistical packages and simulations. Case analysis is the core of most Kellogg classes, so it’s a big help to be able to project case data and demonstrate analysis methods on the big screen. Many instructors show videos as well.

The school’s computer network is available to help this process. Professors have directories on the Kellogg server to store their materials, which they can access later from any classroom. Most maintain student directories as well, and students know to check the web for homework assignments, case data, office hours and other information, with e-mail the basis for much communication. "We want to provide our students with the latest technology," says O’Floy. "Everything here is so network driven, we want students and teachers to be able to plug in to the Internet from anywhere."

Completing the installations

One of the challenges in outfitting classrooms in a school like Kellogg is finding slow periods to schedule installations. O’Floy says the summer’s work could not begin until mid-July and had to be finished by the "drop dead date" of September 22. "Those guys from United bent over backwards to get this stuff done by the time classes started," says O’Floy. "They were fantastic."

Rick Nelson, United Visual’s Sales Manager, says he sees meeting these kinds of deadlines as crucial to success in the audio visual system business. "Obviously, we can’t be everywhere at once, but we do work very hard to be honest with our customers about what we can and cannot do." Nelson’s installation crews work a lot of overtime during the summer, when the bulk of school installations must be completed, but he says that doesn’t mean they sacrifice their standards.

The work at Kellogg was complicated by the fact that several of the classrooms were being refurbished and had older equipment that had to be moved elsewhere. In the end, however, everything was fully operational by the time students arrived, and no one suspected how hard everyone worked to make it happen.

Yet that’s typical of Kellogg Graduate School. Offering its students the very best is a tough assignment. Their commitment to excellence must be borne out in everything they do, including their classroom technology.