'Cappi' Wadley reading clinic nearing completion

(Tahlequah, Okla.)--A state of the art reading and technology center is set to open at Northeastern State University soon.

With the completion of construction expected in mid-March, the Cappitola Cappi Wadley Center for Reading and Technology at Northeastern State University is set to open on the third floor of Bagley Hall.

Funded by a portion of the universitys first $1 million private donation, the Wadley Center will provide a clinic where people can overcome reading deficiencies.

The Cappi Wadley Center for Reading and Technology will provide outreach tutoring to children, families and adults, said Dr. Deborah Landry, interim dean of the NSU College of Education. "Our graduate and undergraduate students will have state of the art resources to develop their instructional abilities to help improve literacy.

We are thrilled to be near completion on this project and we plan to start operations in the summer. We anticipate the new facility with its planned technology will serve the community and university well.

Dr. Tobi Thompson, assistant professor of curriculum and instruction, is interim director of the center and working to establish its operating guidelines and processes.

My role will include arranging for NSU teacher candidates to tutor people in need of literacy enrichment, she said. I will also coordinate other literacy events in the clinic and plan and implement community outreach.

Gregg Wadley, Northeastern class of 1969, and his wife, Dr. Betsy Brackett, pledged the milestone gift in December 2010 in honor of Wadleys mother, Cappitola Cappi Wadley. Cappi Wadley was a librarian at NSU and a public school teacher. She passed away in 2005.

Construction of the facility began July 11, 2011. It will house 21 tutoring rooms for individual or family tutoring, collaborative learning areas, a computer lab, classrooms and a workroom.

The Wadley Centers design is based on the NSU Reading Clinic at the Broken Arrow campus, which has been an extraordinary success, said Anita Thompson, development and grants officer for the College of Education. It tutors hundreds of children each year. The Wadley Center will allow us to work with children and families in the Tahlequah area to provide skills for a better future.

She said donations to support the Wadley Center are still welcome.

While we have the funding for the construction, we still need funding for technology and books, she said. There are also a number of naming opportunities at several levels available. Those funds will go toward a maintenance endowment for the center.

A maintenance endowment will allow for care for the room, furniture and equipment. Naming rights are available for classrooms, tutoring rooms, artwork and bookcases.