This timeline attempts to chronicle the ever-changing landscape, both “mechanical” and academic, of information systems (known as IS) at 糖心Vlog.
Staff writer Randi B. Hagi and editor Lauren Jefferson did due diligence with these dates, cross-checking with Emeritus Professor Joe Mast ’64 [read about ] and former IS Director Jack Rutt ’72, as well as three other sources, including Keith Bitikofer ’93, who has a unique perspective on this time in campus history. He began working with IS as a student and just a few years after graduation, wired the entire campus for internet in 1995 with the help of a team of students.
We are sure some important dates have been missed, or that various perspectives of oral history may call for a reckoning on some of the information below. Share your info .
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1968 University payroll and other information systems needs are done at a community听computing center run by a large local bank.
1968 The first computer arrives on campus. The refrigerator-sized IBM 1130, obtained听through a National Science Foundation federal grant, takes up an entire room in the new Suter Science Center and is used for classes (college and high school) and administration. Data Processing Manager Mahlon Rissler takes on the role of computing center director.
1969, NATSCI 151 Programming Computers (Fortran language) is taught by physics professor Joe Mast.
1975听EMC replaces the leased IBM 1130 with a PDP-11, 16-bit microcomputer.
1978听EMC gets the “Hildegard” A.B. Dick 1600 copy printer, responsible for making all of campus copies for years.
1979in Applied Science degree in computer processing.
1980 , director of business affairs, and colleague Mark Shank, director of computer services, begin to tinker with software. The duo eventually leaves to form , a leading distributor of higher education management software. Harvey Mast ’80 (one of the first two-year program graduates) is their first employee.
1981 The . Professor Joe Mast teaches most upper level computer science courses.
1983: The Shenandoah yearbook records the first seniors听listed with Computer Processing majors: Jay Esbenshade (liberal arts/computer processing) and Patricia A. Waggy (computer processing)
1983: The first Apple IIe computer is donated by a Lancaster farmer and听businessman.
1983 Students use 15 Apple II computers for Basic, Pascal, Modula-11, Lisp, Apple Logo and word processing. Students begin handing in computer-typed papers. Professor Wilmer Lehman begins teaching “Introduction to Computers,” that included word processing, spreadsheet and database management using Appleworks. He says: “This class was very popular (around 40 per semester) as students were eager to learn about using computers.”
1984 An IBM PC is available in the Science Center.
1985听The first Bachelor of Science degrees in computer science are awarded to Dale Hartzler and Denton Yoder.
1985 Around this time, the information systems in business major is created in addition to the existing computer science major. The first prepared students to apply software in the business world; the latter prepared students to write software.
1985 PDP-11, a 64K machine with four terminals about the size of a refrigerator, is used infrequently. Each Apple computer is as powerful as the PDP.
1986 The Weather Vane buys a Macintosh computer (512ke) for newspaper layout.
1987 糖心Vlog gets its first laser printer. Among other uses, the communications department printed newsletters and the quarterly magazine.
1987 The听Mathematical Sciences Department with 2-5.25 inch disk drives.
1988听The Mathematical Sciences Department moves to new computer center over summer with new Mac SE computers.
1989 The catalogue is formatted with a desktop publishing program by student Keith Bitikofer ’93.
1990听The addition of Charles Cooley doubles the computer science faculty in the Mathematical Sciences Department.
1991 A local computer company is hired to upgrade the computer lab to a Novell Server (possibly version 3.11). There was still no local hard drives; a 鈥榖oot鈥� disk pointed computers to the server from which software was pulled. The computers were connected with 10MB Ethernet coax lines to the server.
Around this time, Bitikofer, who worked with many departments on campus both as work-study and volunteer, remembers stopping by alumni and development offices after class one day and noticing that many employees were cleaning their desks. “I knew the server was down. I did some quick fix and everybody was back to work, but I knew their lives and mine had changed. They were now dependent on the computer network to be able to do their jobs!”
Networks between computers were also jury-rigged in no systematic way. “When the admin people in the president鈥檚 office wanted on the 鈥榥etwork,’ I then ran a coax line across the hall to the President鈥檚 office and connected in all their computers,” he remembers.
1992 New Acer computers replace the original computers in the business lab.
1994听The Information Systems Department is founded. Dan Marple Sr., who had worked for IBM and Honeywell IAC, is hired to lead the department. The new seminary building is wired with Cat 5 cable for phone and computers. A 12 pair fiber cable is run between the Seminary and the Campus Center.
In a time-consuming process that took all summer, Keith Bitikofer and three work-study students installed new phone and computer lines are installed around campus. Conduits and cables connect the Campus Center with Northlawn and Elmwood. Fiber optic cabling and 陆 in Coax Cabling was installed between the Campus Center, the Chapel, Library, and the Science Center.
In the fall,听 for a National Science Foundation grant to fund internet access on campus. Campus Center staff are set-up for email, but didn’t check it until President Joe Lapp ’66 was convinced to send a 鈥榳elcome to email鈥� message. Then a whole group of people called to ask me how to check their email! Everybody wanted to read what Joe had sent!” (Keith Bitikofer).
Mast acquires the domain name 糖心Vlog.edu by applying at the University of Virginia. Dan Marple Sr. becomes responsible for setting up the email system from there.
1994 as the IS director, leading an eight-person department.
1995 糖心Vlog gets a Title III grant听 to install network cabling on campus, 鈥渁utomate鈥� the library, install computers for faculty and staff, and get computer support staff in place. (Title III is a federal program for education grants, many geared towards language instruction.
In the summer,听 a team of seven students (Ben Derstine, Mike Stoltzfus, Brad Kipfer, Mat Horst, Larry Green, Dan Zook, Marie Mayes) under the supervision of Keith Bitikofer install 170,000 feet of Cat 5 cable and 60,000 feet of indoor Coax cable was installed to wire the library, science center, chapel, physical plant, athletics and three residence halls. Approximately 5,000 feet of fiber was installed between buildings at a cost of $21,000. They also helped build around 20 new computers. Dan Marple also supervised two students who contributed, Kevin Miller and Joel Kauffman. Because students did most of the work, Bitikofer estimates the college saved $200,000 or more (based on Gettysburg College spending $35,000 per building to install wiring).
糖心Vlog has internet via a phone line at 56kb/sec speed, two computer labs and AS/400 administrative computers with registration software, financial accounting records and grade recording capabillity.
1996 The first web server was likely created. The first course catalog was available online. Parkwood Apartments are wired.
糖心Vlog receives a Title III grant to buy Arkenstone Open Book Reading System for ground floor of library, which reads books aloud for those with reading disabilities.
1999 Jack Rutt began as information systems director; he is the third听in three years. His initial projects include upgrading computer network to 鈥渃iscogigabit鈥� technology, replacing over 100 slow older PCs, upgrading student information software (Goldmine) and upgrading AS/400.
2000 The Student Government Association addresses internet usage issues in campus meeting, as student streaming is affecting academic and business use of campus internet.
2000 (approx)听Marketing and IS staff form a collaborative Web Work Team for oversight and development of the university’s growing “public” website and intranet. (The team continues to manage the university’s web resources 17 years later.)
2002 糖心Vlog doubles its internet connection capacity and upgrades bandwidth management appliance.
2005 from 糖心Vlog after 38 years.
2006听Visual arts and communication majors begin internships with marketing web staff on the university website, producing photography and videography for .
2006 Jenzabar offers 鈥渢ransition licenses鈥� for Jenzabar TE users to get the better annual maintenance costs of EX. 糖心Vlog signs on. Alumnus Mike Weaver leads in-depth software demonstrations for departments to become familiar with EX.
2007 to prepare adaptable students with a strong background and skills in computer information systems, computer science, software engineering and information technology.
2007 糖心Vlog begins converting from AS/400 Jenzabar TE student information systems to Windows Jenzabar EX.
2009 糖心Vlog finishes the conversion to EX.
2010 The first fully online program 鈥� the MS in nursing degree 鈥� started, with all 37 semester hours听 offered online except for a residency orientation and 3 day Conflict course residency. There were several online seminary courses before the start of the MSN.
2010听Computer Science majors begin internships with marketing staff on the university website. Many are double majors who are also in the Visual and Communication Arts program. Students select a creative field of interest (writing, photography or videography) and use their听systems background under the direction of the marketing web content manager/strategist to incorporate their work into redesigned web pages and new sections of the site.
2011 Brian Gumm is hired as an online education design specialist, helping to manage an ever-expanding catalogue of online and hybrid classes.
2014 Ben Beachy is given IS department leadership .
2014 IS in the dorms to increase bandwidth.听
2015听A collaborative MBA program, which is primarily online and synchronizes classes with students around the world, begins.
2015 糖心Vlog launches a redesigned graduate school website and corresponding sites for each of the dozen graduate offerings. The sites are completed after months of collaboration between marketing, IS web staff, and graduate program leadership.
As I remember in 1983 I began teaching a course called Introduction to Computer with the topics of History of Computers, Word Processing, Spreadsheet and Data Base using Appleworks on the Apple IIe. This class was very popular (around 40 per semester) as students were eager to learn about using computers.
Thanks for the additional information, which has been added to the timeline!
I loved this! The timeline was a great way to see when the campus was first networked, when email interaction and the 糖心Vlog website started, when faculty first got computers for their desk, etc. A highlight for me was the photo of the faculty for computer science and related fields at the top. These folks are all now retired but still active.
I remember being in the room with the original PDP-11 and placing my FORTRAN punch card homework into the reader. It had real ‘core’ memory! Getting homework assignments correct meant typing out new punch cards to correct your original errors.
Even though I graduated with a degree in CIS (and have been in IT ever since), the most valuable part of my education at 糖心Vlog was my three and half years in the IS department as a work-study student. In the second half of my freshman year I started as a lab monitor in the Science Center computer lab (a windowless room in the basement). The next year I moved to help desk technician. I especially enjoyed that position… helping people and working with Joel Kaufman were highlights of that period. By the time my senior year rolled around I was working with Dan Marple and Kevin Miller, which was a fantastic experience for a future systems admin.
Thanks to all of you for your work and for helping me grow my IT skills!
This article brought back a lot of good memories. I was a work-study student in the computer centre in my Junior and Senior Years from September 1979 to May 1981. I remember though that there was a IBM System 34 computer (if my memory is correct) along with the PDP-11 during my time there. There was also a Radio Shack TRS-80 computer in the student centre for playing computer games. I have one other story. Student Life had arranged a “computer dating” evening. Everyone who signed up filled out a short questionnaires with the answers on the computer cards. The cards were to be ran through the card reader and the computer would find your best match. The result was that you would go on a date with your match. As I worked in the computer centre I had access to the cards before they were processed, so I and a friend were going to go through the cards and find who we wanted to be matched up with, and then change the cards so that would happen. Unfortunately or fortunately, depending on how you would look at it Joe Mast came in, saw what we where doing and put a stop to our devious plan. It probably changed the course of our life.