Circa 1990

In 1990 Administrative Computing and Academic Computing were separate organizations. Leif Aagaard was in charge of Administrative Computing. Robert Chase was in charge of Academic Computing.

The college was completing its implementation of the Quodata and Fundal administrative software, replacing applications developed in-house. The Quodata/Fundal software offered a better-integrated solution, a consistent user interface and modules that were designed to feed information to each other.

End user devices at the time were dumb terminals. Data communications was limited to RS232/RS423 connections. This was sufficient for the character-oriented applications of the time, and provided a cost-effective solution. An Ethernet network existed only in the computer room. Word processing software (WordPerfect) was available via terminal from a central server.

In 1990 the college received cable television services and telephone switching services from the local community. At the same time, Administrative Computing provided processing and printing services to external organizations.

The college had one student computer lab (Woody Lab).

Circa 1991

Administrative Computing and Academic Computing were merged to form Computer Services. Leif Aagaard was selected as director.

Circa 1992-1993

Following this the college began providing its own cable television and telephone switching services. The operation of these was initially the responsibility of Computer Services, with the cable television head end located in the computer room.

There was a growth in the use of PCs and Macs, funded by individual departments. The computer services department provided technical support for college owned machines (and, on a charge-back basis, student owned machines). There was no standardization of hardware or software, making support difficult.

Circa 1994-1995

The college began to connect the campus with fiberoptic cable. Cable segments were bridged forming one collision domain. The need for the fiber backbone evolved from the increased use of intelligent workstations, increased needs for clients to connect to servers on the campus network and increased use of the Internet.

Additional student computer labs were created. This included Guion (2 PC labs), Babcock (Mac),

Bennedict (Mac), Library 201, and the Library Night Study.

Circa 1995-1996

The college contracted with Kaludis Consulting Group (KCG) to review academic and administrative computing and provide specific IT strategies and recommendations. The KCG correspondence and reports are on file in Computer Services.

Cable television and telephone charge-back operations became part of Auxiliary Services. About the same time, the college discontinued processing and printing services for external organizations.

Circa 1997

Paul Wiley replaced Leif Aagaard as Director of Computer Services.

Circa 1997-1998

The college began a life-cycle management program for college-owned workstations, printers and servers. This provides for replacing equipment every 4 years. Combined with standard 3-year warranties, this has minimized maintenance costs, and downtime associated with maintenance. This effort also helped to standardize the hardware and software found on campus.

The college began using Remedy software to managing helpdesk calls. This ensures that reported problems are assigned to the right person, builds a database of reliability information useful for equipment purchase decisions, and potentially a knowledge base to enable non-technical people to solve common problems.

Circa 1998-1999

The cost-recovery PC and Mac repair for student owned machines moved to Auxiliary Services as an adjunct to their PC and Mac sales.

The college began a selection process for Administrative Software. The selection committee included representatives from various administrative areas and selection criteria incorporated the recommendations of KCG.

Paul Wiley resigned as Director of Computer Services in June 1999.

FY1999-2000 to date

Covered by the five-column reports for Computer Services.