Approximately seventy-nine percent of new freshmen chose to live on campus. To meet this growing need, the College opened Oak Hall on schedule and the adjacent Pavilion, a student dining and recreational building, in fall 1999. Entech Engineering completed a facilities condition audit of all campus facilities and formulated a database useful for planning and prioritizing future building projects. A fuel cell installed near Oak Hall supplied eighty percent of the electrical requirements of the residence hall and the lighting in the parking area. This alternative energy source is environmentally-friendly, comparatively inexpensive, and provides a reliable backup in case of loss of power.
All students living on campus have individual Internet access.
Exam schedules, academic calendars, and graduation information were also available to students online. Two graduating senior and alumni surveys were distributed with an option for online response, as was one survey linked to the evaluation of services provided during freshman orientation. Web-enabled placement testing using the College Board's Accuplacer test was successfully piloted in fall 1999 and fully implemented in spring 2000 for new freshmen. The project will ultimately produce a combination of Web-based instructional materials and CDs for educators to be distributed nationally. WRPR, 90.3 on your FM dial, acted as a broadcast training lab as well as serving the campus and surrounding areas.