Must-Have Tech: Then & Now

Tech is used as a tool by students to be successful in and out of the classroom. When it came to homework, Wendy Mandel, AB ’88, was able to tick away at her Brother electric typewriter from the comfort of her room in Jefferson Hall, saving her many late-night trips to the use-by-appointment-only computer labs at Alden Library. Today, a student’s laptop is an essential tool for completing and submitting assignments entirely online, from anywhere.

Tech has always allowed students to ensure the highest quality in their work. Mandel purchased fancy stationary from the College Book Store to give her term papers a special touch. Now, students use online resources like Google Docs to have classmates view and edit their work to double- and triple-check assignments that encompass their semester’s work.

Before the cell phone, students connected with the folks back home by purchasing a calling card. In the late ’90s, Teresa Barney, BSSE ’99, used her card—and had the multi-digit number memorized—to make long-distance calls to her family.

Calls to her grandmother, who lived in Chillicothe, 60 miles from Athens, was considered long-distance. Today’s students call, text, and video chat with friends and family anywhere on the globe with a simple tap on their smartphones.

From the very same smartphone, today’s Bobcats can amplify their favorite music for their friends through wireless stereos. Jon Denti, BS ’70, needed his 1966 Garrard turntable and stereo to achieve the same effect. With this setup, Denti and his friends created a makeshift radio station in his Parks Hall dorm, pointing his stereo out his window to play music and tell jokes to passing students. “Most people loved us, but a few said the only problem was they couldn’t turn us off. But after about three weeks, the dean did!”

Feature photographs: (TOP LEFT and BOTTOM RIGHT) courtesy of the Mahn Center for Archives and Special Collections. Photo (TOP RIGHT and BOTTOM LEFT) by Ben Wirtz Siegel, BSVC ’02