While most students sat in the same room as their new classmates yesterday, Ryan Calef's class was sitting a hundred miles away.

On two screens in the front of the room and one in the back, three students sitting in Carlisle were staring back at Calef, listening to University Park professor Tiyanjana Maluwa discuss the role of global organizations in international law from the Beam Business Administration Building.

Calef is a second-year student at the Penn State Dickinson School of Law, which just began its inaugural operations at University Park this semester and is debuting a new dual-campus approach that will offer classes both here and at its original site in Carlisle.

With an emphasis on fully connecting the two campuses, one of the steps to bridge the 100-mile gap between them is the use of videoconferencing, which allows students to take classes taught in either location.

"It took about week to get used to it and everything like that," Calef said of the videoconferencing. "Once you get used to it, though, it's really kind of fun."

Along with 119 other students, Calef arrived in State College two weeks ago, in accordance with the start of school at Dickinson in Carlisle. There are 83 first-year law students attending University Park this fall and 27 second- and third-year students.

All first-year law classes are taught in person by a professor. However, of the 38 courses taken by upper-level students at University Park, only 18 of those courses have a professor in the room. The remaining 20 courses are viewed remotely through videoconference.

"I think so far it has been a success. We enjoy enormous [Information Technology] support, and when there has been a problem it has been quickly rectified," said Takis Tridimas, who teaches a comparative constitutionalism course made up of six students at University Park and one student via videoconference from Carlisle.

However -- as Tridimas was quick to point out -- the recipients of the system are the true test of its effectiveness.

"It is not for [the professors] to decide," he said. "The key factor is student response."

Shant Zakarian is a second-year law student attending University Park this fall.

"In lecture classes it's OK because it's one person talking the whole time," he said. "The thing about law school is that there's a lot of dialogue ... going back and forth. Delays and echoes screw up the class."

Overall, some say the allure of the University Park campus overshadows the sacrifices made in the classroom.

"I wouldn't have applied if it wasn't Penn State," Zakarian said. "If I knew I was going to be in Carlisle, I wouldn't have applied."

This sentiment seems to be echoed by prospective law students, too. As reported in February, Dickinson has seen a 35 percent increase in applications in the past year.

This transitional period of Dickinson at University Park is part of a $100-million project that will break ground this fall with the construction of a new facility to house the law school at the East Park Avenue entrance to the university. The completion of the law school is anticipated for the 2008-09 semester break and extensive renovations of Trickett Hall in Carlisle are currently under way.