Bowie Telework Center

14000 Jericho Park Rd.
Bowie, MD 20715

About

Telecommuting centers are a popular work option and welcome alternative to tiny, cramped home offices, dining room tables and kitchen counters. Working at home may not be an option for employees who have children and other responsibilities. Some employees lack the discipline required to work at home. Others prefer the separation of home and work or desire the collegiality of working outside the home.

Responding to the needs of its community, Bowie State University, through the combined interests of government and education, developed the Bowie State University Telecommuting Center. The center opened in June 1998 as a pilot project of the US General Services Administration's Interagency Telecommuting Pilot Project.

Located in the Thurgood Marshall Library, the center houses professional, technologically advanced workstations. Federal agency clients of the center have included: the Office of Personnel Management, the General Services Administration, the Federal Highway Administration, the National Science Foundation, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Naval Seas Systems, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the National Institutes of Health, the Internal Revenue Service, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the US Departments of Agriculture, Education, Justice, Transportation, and Homeland Security. The center is also available for use by the private sector.

Telework has long been viewed as an essential element for continuity of operations planning (COOP). The BSU center currently serves as a COOP site for one federal agency and conducts COOP exercises to prepare for potential disruptions to the agency's Washington, DC-based headquarters. A 2006 GAO audit of this agency's COOP plan gave the BSU Telecommuting Center high marks for providing COOP Services.

The Bowie State University Telecommuting Center is fully funded by the US General Services Administration.