CrossingtheBridgeto trie21st Century

By Timothy J. Gibbons

Campus technologyadvanced duringthe summer with thenumber of computers and thenumber oflabs both increasing. Allofthecomputers intheacademic computing labreceivedsoftware upgrades, Windows 95and MicrosoftOffice Pro.

A variety ofnew labshave been established, including ahomework labwith avarietyof IBMcompatible386sand 486s. "It fits agrowing need and agrowingrealizationofwhatwe'redoingacademically," said Will Samson,the head of academiccomputing. "Technologyis not just animportant partofcertain schools anymore. It's part of a liberal artseducation." The school spent about $80,000on equipment upgrades for the academic labs, Samsonsaid.

A rented telephone line known as aT-l, allowed for afaster and largerconnection to the Internet."That gives us about 24times thebandwidth,"Samsonsaid.

Two new major-specific labswerealso established; acalculus lab for math majors and anadvanced multimedia lab for communication majors. The math lab included 17 Power Macintosh computers equipped withMathematica and asoftware packageused to do algebraic computations.

Communicationmajors trainedonstate-of-theartequipmentdonatedtothe new KirkpatrickMedia Center. Thenew lab included InterNet access, colorprinting, and avarietyofdigitalproduction capabilities.