Imagine a place on campus where one could be virtually immersed in a foreign country through various technologies which would bring culture, foreign languages, and international media to life.
Upon its completion in spring 2004, the World Media and Culture Center, to be located in Hagerty Hall, will make this possible.
The renovation project of Hagerty Hall has been formally underway since 1997. That year, the College of Humanities learned it would be moving from University Hall to Hagerty Hall based on its proposal to install the World Media and Culture Center.
“WMCC is a series of facilities, all of which are a technology bridge that will enable us to deliver foreign language and cultural instruction in newer and better ways,” said Melinda Nelson, assistant dean of the College of Humanities.
Since 1999 Nelson’s role has been as liaison between university architects and the college’s faculty.
Specifically, WMCC will include the Crane Café, a videoconferencing center, two hypermedia development studios, two language learning labs and the SBC-Ameritech Individualized Instruction learning center, said Diane Birckbichler, chair of the department of French and Italian and director of the Foreign Language Center.
Also to be included in Hagerty Hall’s renovation will be the offices of seven modern foreign language departments, the Foreign Language center, Humanities Information Systems and the department of comparative studies.
One of WMCC’s main facilities is the Crane Café, of which a prototype exists on the first floor of University Hall. The café will include four televisions that will receive only foreign language broadcasts.
“Our students will have immediate access to the culture of other places and will hear the foreign language as it is spoken on news broadcasts, soap operas, culture programming and stock reports, to give a few examples,” Nelson said.
Because WMCC will be open to all students, international students could visit the café to stay updated with the latest news from their home countries.
“We see the café as being a nourishing atmosphere to enable interaction between students taking foreign languages and native speakers,” Nelson said.
“I think I would use it. I would especially want to go visit if big news happened in China,” said Zhu Zhang, a doctoral student in sports management from China.
Natalie Radovich, a senior in psychology who has taken foreign language classes, said she thinks WMCC would be especially helpful to students fulfilling their foreign language requirements.
“It always helps to be immersed in a language. Sometimes reading from books just doesn’t work,” Radovich said.
WMCC will give students who can’t live abroad the next best thing by providing a virtual study abroad experience, Nelson said.
Many hope the WMCC will provide a window to the world for students who are landlocked in Ohio.
“We hope WMCC will be an international passport for our students,” Birckbichler said. “In order for you to participate in a society with another language, you have to be able to understand and access their media.”
Absorbing the news from other countries and learning first-hand about the perspectives of other cultures will equip OSU students for success in all of their classes, said Michael Hogan, dean of the College of Humanities.
“The center will be nothing less than this country’s premier facility for foreign language and cultural learning,” Hogan said. “And that will enable them to engage more effectively with life in the global society that is emerging all around us.”
