Enrollment in the Glass Program at the University of South Alabama, which is at the forefront of glass education, is a rare opportunity for students at a Southern public university. This is the only program of its kind in the state and the only one at a public institution in the Southeast. Courses are offered in the state of the art hot studio for Glass-blowing, and the cold studio for kiln working in warm thermo-forming procedures that include fusing and sculptural glass casting. Cold work instruction includes the shaping of glass by grinding and polishing, including lathe work, engraving, and sandblasting. The development of conceptual contemporary ideas in multi-discipline endeavors are encouraged and served by a variety of glass techniques including the use of imagery or text produced by painting, printing, drawing and photography. Art students as well as majors from other disciplines contribute to the glass making community experience where hot glass is gathered from two 500 pound furnaces while students learn a methodology more than 5,000 years old.