This month William G. Jackson, a Michigan Tech alumnus and the president of CableAmerica, presented the Center with a generous $1 million donation. This gift will fund many instructional support initiatives, which have the potential to transform student learning at Michigan Tech.
With this gift the Center, now named the William G. Jackson Center for Teaching and Learning, will bring together a full suite of technological tools to upgrade teaching, learning, learning assessment and student assessment of teaching. Plans include $435,000 for classroom technologies that will allow faculty to easily bring more content into the classroom and record classes for later student review. An additional $395,000 will be devoted to meeting faculty needs: providing staff to help with course development; creating an online system to evaluate student learning; providing tablet computers for experimentation and practice; initiating a new master’s program in educational technology; and supporting awards, travel, lectures and training related to the new learning technologies. A secure testing center for standardized tests, such as the Fundamentals of Engineering Exam, will also be installed at a cost of $170,000.
William G. Jackson has a long-standing affinity with Michigan Tech, evident in the guidance, resources and support he has extended to the University over the years. Jackson, of Scottsdale, Arizona, graduated from Michigan Tech in 1958 with a BS in Electrical Engineering and is a member of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Academy. In 1999, he and his wife, Gloria, established the William G. and Gloria J. Jackson Endowed Scholarship. Jackson has received the Board of Control Silver Medal and Michigan Tech’s Distinguished Alumni Award.