SUU to hold lab launch ceremony for new campus labs

On Feb. 2, 2024, Southern Utah University’s communication department will hold a lab launch ceremony for three new labs that have been built on campus. School supporters and community members from all over Utah are welcome to come tour the spaces and learn about how these labs work to serve SUU and Cedar City.

With the construction and eventual opening of Bristlecone Hall in April 2023, many SUU faculty and staff relocated to offices in the new building. This left three empty spaces in the America First Event Center, which the communication department renovated into the SUU Newsroom, the Social Brand Lab and the Eye-Tracker Lab.

Jen Burt, a professor of communication who teaches many classes in the new Social Brand Lab, has been helping coordinate the event. “It’s been a pretty collaborative project. All of the professors have helped plan it,” Burt said. 

The Social Brand Lab is a space where students learn about strategic brand building and social media management. At the launch, the department will be searching for clients who can request assistance from SUU students in the Social Media Lab course, taught and guided by Burt. 

Professor Michele Fogg leads the Newsroom, home to SUU News and the University Journal. SUU News is a student-run organization, supported by the communication department, where students learn how to produce news content like the magazine they distribute twice per semester. 

Lijie Zhou has been instrumental in the creation of the Eye-Tracker Lab, a state-of-the-art facility that will help SUU conduct and produce research projects with the use of motion-capture technology. A full-body VR setup and a room completely painted for green screen use accompany eye-tracking software that is already being used to advance students’ understanding of how our minds explore the content we see.

The ceremony acts as a way to connect locals to campus and find support in the community from donors and those who are interested in working with the school. “We want to be able to invite community members who can use these services,” Burt said. 

Not only that, but the event will showcase what the communication department has to offer to its student body. “We want students to be able to come and see what it’s like. Our comm students know kinda what’s going on in there, but the rest of the campus doesn’t,” Burt explained. “There are a lot of prospective comm students, undecided majors, who might be interested in the things we are offering.”

Author: Lily Brunson
Photographer: Chloe Copeland
Editor: Anna Mower
news@suunews.net