Page 15 - Laker Connection Fall 2009

ing the world’s finest musical performers on a regular basis, countless recordings, and NPR’s classical music program, “Perfor- mance Today.”
Clayton State also became more of a part of the burgeoning metropolitan Atlanta economy of the 1990s by launching a se- ries of development activities, including making student housing available for the first time, working with local officials to se- cure, first, the Southeastern Regional Cen- ter for the National Archives and Records Administration and then shortly thereafter, the Georgia Archives, thereby creating the first co-location of state and national archive facilities.
With all of this change, it could be ex- pected that the student population of Clay- ton State would also change. In fact, the institution continued to serve the mature adult student and to reflect the extraordi- nary diversity of metropolitan Atlanta, earn- ing recognition by U.S. News & World Report as the most diverse baccalaureate institution in the southeastern U.S.
Dr. Richard A. Skinner, Clayton State’s sec- ond president from January 1994 to
June 1999, oversaw the transi-
tion to University status and
was the architect of the Infor- mation Technology Project, which made Clayton State the third public “Notebook Univer-
sity” in the nation in 1998.
Right: Skinner’s wife, Kathleen, takes a shot.
Skinner teaches a class.
Above: The Southern Crescent Celebration, a popular event held annually at Clayton State during the Skinner years, invited the campus and community to enjoy food, games and, in 1996, the opportunity to dunk President Skinner and other administrators. Left: Skin- ner and then-director of Financial Aid Catherine McClarin place items in a time capsule during Clayton State’s 25th anniversary celebration.
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The Information Technol- ogy project that began under Dr. Rick Skinner and became ITP Choice under Dr. Thomas K. Harden set Clayton State apart as the first public university in the South- east, and one of the first in the nation, to issue note- book computers to all stu- dents at all levels in all majors. This transformed the campus and made Clayton State a national pioneer in “ubiquitous computing.”
ITP LEGACY