Alabama State Senator Richard Shelby announced yesterday that the University of West Alabama would receive $300,000 to add more infrastructure to the E-Campus system. Senator Shelby said, ” This funding will assist the University of West Alabama with its efforts to provide a comprehensive technological environment. This will allow a seamless flow of information between students, faculty, and professional staff, and the networking infrastructure.”

This announcement came as a shock when the Director of Information Systems Department Paul Stewart was asked for a comment.

“I’m very excited about this money,” Stewart said. Stewart said that around this same time last year a grant was written so they could add more infrastructure to their E-Campus system, which worked out to about $1 million.

But the problem now is that the university doesn’t know what the restrictions are on the money and until they find out, don’t know exactly what to do with it.

The E-Campus system allows for any student or faculty to have the Internet anywhere on campus. Thus allowing students to do their work while sitting in the SUB or in their dorm rooms. The faculty can use it to send work or grades to students.

It is essential for students to have access to UWA’s campus information technology resources to participate fully in the university’s academic and social environment. While UWA provides several venues of on-campus computer access, it is strongly recommended that each student own or have access to a computer capable of linking to UWA’s electronic infrastructure to take full advantage of UWA’s E-Campus initiative.