Gainesville Center Expands

August 11, 2011

Saint Leo University has expanded the university’s presence in Gainesville, FL, with an additional teaching location, the acquisition of new technology for education majors and other disciplines, and the introduction of coursework locally for the Bachelor of Social Work degree. All the improvements have been put into place for the semester beginning at the end of August.

Saint Leo continues to operate at its longtime location in Gainesville, at the main campus of Santa Fe College, just off NW 39th Avenue at 3000 NW 83rd St., and near Interstate 75 (Exit 390). Under the arrangement with Santa Fe, Saint Leo leases space for advising, and for use of classrooms for some evening and weekend courses.

By leasing an additional 8,300 square feet in an office park less than three miles east of Santa Fe College, and also conveniently located just off of NW 39th Avenue, Saint Leo is able to accommodate a growing student population and added faculty. The new Gainesville Education Center occupies space in two stories in the Magnolia Parke office complex at 4650-B NW 39th Place.

Three new faculty members will be teaching primarily at the new Gainesville location: Dr. Douglas Greenberg of the education faculty, specializing in middle grades; Dr. Nancy Ryan, also of the education and specializing in elementary education; and Dr. Lara Ault of the psychology faculty.

Additionally, Saint Leo’s education students will be thrilled to find that two of the classrooms are outfitted with SMART Board technology, which is now in use in the public school districts where many local Saint Leo education graduates will ultimately teach. The SMART board looks much like a plain white-erase board (or even its predecessor, the chalkboard), but is connected to a computer and to the Internet. This enables a teacher to integrate a wider variety of teaching examples and display materials into a lesson, and to adapt a lesson as needed, during class, with the touch of a button, a finger, or a stylus. Related technologies also now available in the Gainesville Education Center include additional tools to manage interactive displays in classrooms, document cameras and flip cameras students can use to incorporate new materials into their classroom presentations, a portable Macintosh laptop lab, and Dell laptop computers.

By equipping Saint Leo’s Gainesville teaching labs with these devices, the university is ensuring that education majors will be proficient in the use of technology that has become standard in modern classrooms, explained Dr. Joanne Roberts, local faculty member and associate chair of the undergraduate education program at Saint Leo. Education courses will be concentrated at the new locations in Gainesville, but courses for other degree programs, including business, are expected to meet there as well.

The new location also has a classroom equipped for video teleconferencing technology (VTT), which a permits teacher and two or more groups of students in different locations to meet and interact simultaneously. VTT also allows more flexibility in arranging guest speakers for university classes.

Saint Leo offers a broad selection of bachelor’s degree programs in Gainesville, including elementary education, middle grades education, accounting, business administration, criminal justice, human resources management, computer information systems, health care management, human services administration, psychology, and sociology. Starting in August, Saint Leo will also offer classes leading to the Bachelor of Social Work degree.

Graduate programs will be added at the center in the near future.

All of Saint Leo University’s programs offered online are available to Gainesville-area residents as well.

For more information, call (352) 367-1192, or e-mail gainesville@saintleo.edu.