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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
NSU JOINS FORCES WITH INTERNET COAST TO BRIDGE THE DIGITAL DIVIDE FORT LAUDERDALE, FL- Nova Southeastern University (NSU) president Ray
Ferrero, Jr., addressed more than 300 attendees at the recent InternetCoast
Information Technology Exposition and Conference at the Broward County
Convention Center in Fort Lauderdale on Thursday, November 9. NSU, a
major sponsor of the conference, donated nine scholarships to InternetCoast:
three each to the Fischler Graduate School of Education and Human Services,
the Wayne Huizenga Graduate School of Business and Entrepreneurship,
and the School of Computer and Information Sciences. InternetCoast's vision to unite South Florida's business, community,
educational institutions, and government organizations to be recognized
as a worldwide hub for the Internet has the strong support of NSU. Ferrero
told the standing-room-only crowd that NSU is a power source for Internet
Coast and part of NSU's mission statement is education, which should
not be bound by time and space. Through the use of technology, NSU is reaching out to more students than ever before. Listed as one of the top 20 cyber-universities in the nation by Forbes magazine, NSU will have 1,000 online classes by year's end and American Jurist magazine graded NSU's Shepard Broad Law Center as number one for their use of technology. The new Library, Research, and Information Technology Center, a partnership with Broward County scheduled for completion fall 2001, is being billed as the "library of tomorrow" and will allow NSU to meet the technological challenges of the future. In addition to the nine scholarships, NSU donated 14 Pentium class
computers to Digital Divide, an InternetCoast program dedicated to helping
those people left out of the technology process. Studies have shown
that access to computers and the Internet is unbalanced with low-income
families and minorities being left out of the technology revolution.
John Ruffin, Jr., chairman of the InternetCoast Digital Divide Committee,
said the goal of Digital Divide is to bridge the gap between the information
haves and the information have-nots. Thanks to NSU, seven computers will go to Mt. Calvary Baptist Church in Pompano Beach and seven will go to Dorsey Riverbend, a Front Porch Community. Deborah Brown Frederick, community liaison for the Dorsey Riverbend neighborhood explained that Front Porch Communities began in 1998 as an initiative developed by the governor to help underserved communities and that the seven computers would go to the Von D. Mizell Library Center. Low-income families and minorities can be brought into the age of technology by providing access and training. NSU is devoted to finding high-tech solutions for delivering education to working professionals and students around the world, and is also devoted to closing this computer chasm. As a university that has always strived to be a part of the community it serves, NSU has stepped up to meet the challenge of bridging the digital divide and bringing the benefits of computers and the Internet to those left out.
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