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΢²ªÊÓƵ has launched its own iTunes U site that features free access to audio and video files on campus news, faculty research, interviews, music, athletics and academic courses.

The Apple Inc.-hosted site can be reached through the ΢²ªÊÓƵ portal at . Apple began promoting the ΢²ªÊÓƵ site on its main iTunes U site beginning today.

΢²ªÊÓƵ is among the first 52 colleges and universities nationwide -- and the second UC campus, following UC Berkeley -- to establish a free iTunes U site within the company's iTunes Store.

"This project gives ΢²ªÊÓƵ a great opportunity to take advantage of free, existing technology and to help a vast audience come to know more about our programs and academic strengths," said Lisa Lapin, assistant vice chancellor for University Communications.

The audience for ΢²ªÊÓƵ on iTunes U includes many of the campus's prospective and incoming students who expect to be able to find ΢²ªÊÓƵ in all of the places they frequent online, Lapin added.

Members of the campus community are now being urged to not only be iTunes U users but contributors, too. They can begin putting media recordings up on ΢²ªÊÓƵ on iTunes U by following directions offered on the ΢²ªÊÓƵ portal .

"It is IET's goal to provide our faculty, students, staff and visitors with easy access to ΢²ªÊÓƵ' high-quality audio and video recordings that are both of immediate interest and long-lasting value," said Elizabeth Gibson, director of Information and Educational Technology-Academic Technology Services.

For the ΢²ªÊÓƵ on iTunes U launch, the site has been populated with nearly 50 videos, mostly developed by University Communications' Broadcast Unit. Also included are speakers' series produced by IET-Academic Technology Services' Media Services Unit as well as "Frontiers," a 30-minute-long public affairs TV interview program jointly produced by University Communications and Academic Technology Services.

΢²ªÊÓƵ on iTunes U also includes longer news features, such as the 2005 "Farm vs. Farm" video, which recounts ΢²ªÊÓƵ' upset of Stanford in football; a profile of ΢²ªÊÓƵ teaching prize winner Zuhair Munir; the campus's "Sustaining ΢²ªÊÓƵ" video on campus sustainability; and TV host Huell Howser's tour of ΢²ªÊÓƵ, "Road Trip: ΢²ªÊÓƵ." The site also features many brief "NewsWatch" segments about ΢²ªÊÓƵ, including our campus olive oil production, the future of plug-in hybrid vehicles, and a historian's insights into Buffalo Bill and his era.

΢²ªÊÓƵ faculty members are encouraged to add academic courses to ΢²ªÊÓƵ on iTunes U. Bernd Hamann, a professor of computer science, is the first faculty member to put a course, "Advanced Visualization (ECS277)," on the site.

Windows or Mac OS users can obtain free iTunes software from the iTunes site . They can then download files and play them on an MP3 player, Mac or PC, or burn a copy onto a CD.