Prospective students, out-of-town alumni, and future faculty and staff have a new link to the University: a Web-based virtual tour of campus that's brimming with photos and information that current faculty and staff might find useful, too.

The virtual tour (www.sc.edu/virtualtour) was a year in the making and includes 28 stops encompassing nearly all of Columbia campus' major academic buildings, several residence halls, and Innovista. The virtual tour can be accessed on the University's main Web page (look for the "tours" image and Explore Carolina).

"Research tells us that prospective students use the Web extensively to find out about a university," said Denise Wellman, director of the University Visitor Center. "This virtual tour site will give them a foretaste of our beautiful campus, and it will be useful for recruiting not only students but also faculty and staff."

The virtual tour site features three options for touring the campus:

• a selection of 28 thumbnail photos, each of them linked to a series of additional photos (192 total), captions, and related Web links (302 total)
• a campus map with building footprints linked to photos, captions, and related Web links
• a listing of campus buildings by name linked to photos, captions, and related Web links.

The virtual tour site also features links to University housing tours (residence halls), a tour of Innovista, and a tour of the President's House. The site, built by University Instructional Services, University Publications, and University Web Communications, will later include video clips from academic and student support areas featured on the site.

Academic units that want to submit short video clips for the site should contact Wellman at DENISEW@gwm.sc.edu.

"A campus visit is the most trusted source of information for a prospective student; it's critical to their decision to apply and enroll," Wellman sai. "This virtual tour will help them--and anyone else interested in visiting the campus--to get their bearings before arriving, and we hope it will entice them to schedule an actual tour."

For prospective students and campus visitors who plan to come to campus but don't have time or inclination to participate in a guided tour, the Visitor Center plans to unveil an Mp3 tour this spring. The 13-stop, hour-long Mp3 tour will feature student voices guiding visitors across the campus, providing brief historical and informative remarks every step of the way.

"Visitors will be able to download the Mp3 tour to their own Mp3 players or borrow a player from the Visitor Center to explore the campus," Wellman said."It's just another option for learning more about our campus."

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