Other funding for programs has been provided through faculty grants received from the Howe Foundation and from other organizations that support international studies, interdisciplinary education, modern language, and social science specializations. The Geography Department has also applied for NSF grant monies to support the purchase of new computer equipment. In addition to fully equipped cartography, air photo interpretation, and soils testing laboratories, departmental facilities include a specialized microcomputer lab that contains three work stations and more than a dozen IBM PC-compatible color capable computers providing access to a VAX mainframe. Because faculty members from the department actively review new software appropriate for geographic research supplied by manufacturers, significant donations of computer equipment and audio visual materials have been made which benefit the academic major and its students. A U.S. Federal Government Map Depository collection of more than 25,000 sheets, once maintained by the academic department, has been moved to the University library.
Internships offer opportunities to develop employment skills and to effectuate career placement.
Examples of GIS-based internships arranged for students include the Connecticut State Police for crime analysis and Roytech Industries for development of efficient delivery routes in market areas. Mapping of utility lines, transformers, power substations, and electricity paths is an opportunity provided by Northeast Utilities. Moreover, students engage in various public service projects for local and state authorities such as handicapped access mapping and surveying city districts for neighborhood revitalization purposes. These projects also serve to focus attention on the geography program and the quality of its students. A chapter of Gamma Theta Upsilon, the international honor society in geography, is chartered at Central Connecticut State University.