Three Donors Help Lead the Way on Student Criminal Justice Lab

CAMPUS NEWS

With imaginative goals, the expertise of in-house crews and faculty professionals, and instrumental financial support from generous donors, the College has transformed an unused campus space into a state-of-the art, multi-room classroom and laboratory area for its Criminal Justice and Homeland Securities Studies program.

The renovated space in the basement of Eckel Hall now offers students the unique opportunity to experience the realism of an interview/interrogation room, including two-way observation capacities and professional audio/video taping facilities. Those areas connect to a large classroom/lecture facility and crime scene investigation forensic laboratory space.

A contribution from Susan ’74 and John Eastwood outfitted the interrogation/ interview room. A gift by the J.M. McDonald Foundation paid to build the adjacent observation room. The Howard Charitable Foundation’s contribution was instrumental in assuring top-of-the-line renovation and equipment improvements for the lecture/classroom/laboratory space.

The space is now a top-of-the-line facility offering an unparalleled learning experience because its setting and capacities comprise “the real deal,” says Stewart Weisman, J.D., professor in the Criminal Justice and Homeland Security Studies program and chair of the Social and Behavioral Sciences Division. “It gives students a real expe- “THE SPACE IS NOW rience, not only for the interview perspective… but it psyches them to want to do it because A TOP-OF-THE-LINE they have such a great facility.” FACILITY OFFERING

AN UNPARALLELED

Weisman says Cazenovia may possibly be the LEARNING EXPERIENCE...” only small college in the United States having - Stewart Weisman, J.D. an interview room at all and the observation room may be the only such real-time setting that exists among small northeastern colleges in the U.S. Aside from its availability to Criminal Justice and Homeland Security Studies students, the facility hosts students in Psychology and Behavioral and Human Services programs, and also is available to students participating in the College’s extended learning/continuing education Police Academy program. Campus Services crews and interior design faculty lent expertise and hands-on labor that helped lower costs by reducing the need to hire outside services for some of the work.