Facilities

Dedicated at Homecoming 1995, the Franklin W. Olin Building is a state-of-the art academic facility which houses the disciplines that invent, use, and teach the methods of information technology: accounting, business, computer science, economics, managment information systems, and mathematics.

For students majoring in economics and business, mathematics, and computer science, Olin is the center of campus life; here they attend classes, study, use computer technology, and make contacts with colleagues and faculty mentors. Students majoring in other disciplines are frequent users of Olin's facilities as well, learning to use information technology appropriate to their major fields of study.

The building features 33 faculty offices, ten high-technology classrooms, two computer classrooms, four networked computer laboratories, a 137-seat auditorium/lecture hall, a large seminar room, a student study center, and conference/interview rooms.

Classrooms are designed to be flexible to encourage interaction between faculty and students and the formation of small study groups.

The advanced technological facilities in Olin offer students an excellent opportunity to develop comprehensive computer skills in conjunction with knowledge in their disciplines. Though computer skills are becoming increasingly important in every major, they are essential for mathematics, computer science, and economics and business students. Olin equipment and software gives these students an edge in an increasingly technological world.

The Round Table Room, on Olin's third floor, features a network of 25 computer-based participant stations and one facilitator station, enabling concurrent and immediate sharing of ideas and information. The computers are used interactively by people working at separate workstations. The result is a blend of traditional across-the-table talk and electronic brainstorming, issue-analysis, commenting, assessment, prioritizing, and report writing.

The software - Facilitate.com - supports processes such as building agendas, developing surveys, and brainstorming, categorizing, prioritizing, and voting on ideas. It is used widely be educational, non-profit, and corporate organizations around the world.

All computers in Olin are networked to access within the building, throughout the campus (to other buildings labs), and to the internet.