FDU Receives Grant from NJ OSHE to Support Higher Education Infrastructure Improvements
OSHE grant funding awarded will support:
- Library Learning Center
- Network Segmentation and Access Analytics
- Standards-based Upgrades to Networking and Telecommunications IDF Locations
August 18, 2023 —Fairleigh Dickinson University is proud to announce that it has been awarded a substantial grant from the New Jersey Office of the Secretary of Higher Education (OSHE). This grant, aimed at fostering academic excellence and enhancing the educational experience for students, will significantly contribute to the advancement of infrastructure improvements at FDU.
“Fairleigh Dickinson is pleased to have been awarded $13 million as part of the capital facilities grant by the Office of the Secretary of Higher Education of New Jersey with funds allotted to enhance the libraries and upgrade the IT network on our New Jersey campuses. We appreciate the support from the state as investing in our libraries and technology infrastructure will have significant benefits for our students and campus communities by enhancing the security of and access to digital resources and promoting lifelong learning,” said Robert Pignatello, Senior Vice President for Government Affairs, Community Engagement & Strategic Initiatives at Fairleigh Dickinson University.
Check out the Project Synopsis below.
The project enhances the current model of student support in the Monninger Center for Learning and Research to propel the university library as the hub for digital learning, interdisciplinary exploration and global connections through a learning commons model. The project upgrades spaces to promote experiential learning, foster research, and global connections to the FDU history, community, and the environment. Both physically and functionally, through heightened collaboration and innovation, the library is elevated as a place where students’ thirst for inquiry and discovery is supported through the creation of accessible, functional spaces, instruction, technology, and collections.
FDU seeks ELF funding to complete a Firewall Segmentation and Access Analytics Project that adds equipment and software-based logical layering to its physical network that balances the competing imperatives of enforcing security protocols and policies while concurrently ensuring individuals are accessing the components of the University’s information technology ecosystem in accord with the needs of their operating units. When implemented, stakeholders will have role-based access to both the instruments, assets, external endpoints, and services they need, and the various compute, storage, applications, and other tools at their disposal, while significantly improving the security profile and performance for the University’s network.
This CIF proposal for Standards-based Upgrades to Networking and Telecommunications Distribution Facilities seeks to remedy issues with network closets that connect all campus facilities and users’ devices to the information technology resources resident in our main campus data centers, brought on by the increased capacities and capabilities of recently acquired network gear. When completed, all University stakeholders will benefit from a complement of network distribution locations that are accessible and fire safe for personnel, energy efficient, highly available, resilient, reliable, and consistent, thereby ensuring that all equipment items attaching to them perform in accord with the University’s service level agreements.