Students and faculty receive Fiber and Copper certification
On a Friday and Saturday in February 2012, 20 Lee students, eight staff and two faculty members received their Fiber Optic and Copper Cabling certification at Lee’s Church Street Annex. A certification that might normally cost around $250, they got for free.
Chris Golden, director of IT Operations, used his connection with Superior Associates, Inc. and sales associate Jeff Flint to set up the two-day event.
“[The IT Department and Superior Associates] did our students a big favor by hosting this event,” Bill Jaber, professor of computer information systems, said.
During the training sessions, participants learned everything about cables from how to terminate them to the safety procedures involved with maintaining them.
“The class was centered around the proper ways to install, terminate and maintain fiber optic cabling and copper cabling,” Golden said. “It covered everything from one end to the other end of cables.”
Not only can the students put the certification on their resumes, but the certification may also be put to practical use at the university. Golden and his IT Operations team were all certified, which could, theoretically, allow the Operations team and any students that were also cable certified to wire university buildings in house instead of hiring an outside company.
“I want to try to have this event yearly,” Golden said. “It’s my goal.”
Lee student Olumide Adedo attended the two-day event and received his certification. He said he was amazed to learn how revolutionary and efficient fiber optics technology is.
“I intend to keep the knowledge and learn more about the technology [beyond] just having the certification,” Adedo said. “I feel it benefits me in terms of the knowledge I have gained and the fact that it’s an attractive inclusion on a resume in the technology field.”