Lighting ceremony set for Arkansas Research and Education Optical Network

October 26, 2010 -- The Arkansas Research and Education Optical Network (ARE-ON) is scheduled for lighting on Thursday, Nov. 4.  A lighting ceremony is scheduled for 10 a.m. until 11:45 a.m., in Room 222 of the Donald W. Reynolds Center for Health Sciences on the Arkansas State University campus. All faculty, staff, students, and members of the ASU community are invited to attend.

Planning work for the ARE-ON program began in 2004 as a joint initiative between Chief Information Officers of the four research universities—ASU, University of Arkansas-Fayetteville, University of Arkansas-Little Rock and University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in the state of Arkansas.  Since that time, a governing board of campus Chancellors has been established, funding has been appropriated, build-out has occurred, all leading to the culmination of a statewide network that is coming online this year.

The Lighting Ceremony for ASU will be a pivotal event in terms of making new resources available to faculty and students of the institution.  The ceremony will include remote presentations from the Manhattan School of Music and the MOTE Marine Laboratory. 

Guests from our partner institutions in the state will be present for this important event, to see the demonstrations, and to hear comments from Mike Abbiatti (Executive Director, ARE-ON) and Dr. Amy Apon (Director of Cyber-Infrastructure for the State of Arkansas).

Contact the ASU Information and Technology office by e-mail or telephone (870) 972-3033 with any questions or need any further information on this event for Arkansas State University.

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