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By Zachary Thomas
Arizona Daily Wildcat
August 26, 1996
At the intersection of Interstate 10 and Rita Road, the desert stretches for miles in all directions - except one.On the northeast corner lies the University of Arizona Science and Technology Park, a sprawling, irrigated property containing, aside from businesses, the Arizona International Campus of the UA.
Yet how can students stay connected and create a sense of community from such a remote place? Part of the answer - they are wired.
Unlike students at the UA main campus or ASU, each of the 45 AIC students will be given a laptop computer to use while they attend the school.
The computers, a gift from Hughes Missile Systems Co., another tenant at the Technology Park, can be plugged directly into the Internet through data ports located in each classroom at the new campus.
A well-stocked computer lab will also facilitate connectivity.
"This is more of what the future is about," said Celestino FernÊndez, AIC's executive vice president and provost. "What we want is for our students to have access."
The AIC library, nonexistent at this time, will eventually house a limited number of books and will primarily rely on SABIO connections to the UA's libraries for its students.
"We want a small collection," FernÊndez said, "but why should we duplicate the UA library?"
AIC also has a working bookstore in an adjacent room to what will be the library.
Aside from an emphasis on connectivity in learning, AIC facilities already include accessible tennis courts and a softball field, as well as lockers and showers left over from when the building housed IBM Corp. executives, FernÊndez said.
The building's auditorium also doubles as a cafeteria for AIC personnel.
FernÊndez added that AIC will expand to fit the building.
"We have not added or removed a wall yet," he said, adding that plans for a multipurpose lab and a language lab were in the works.
AIC also has 100 acres of undeveloped land on-site reserved for future expansions.
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