The Olden Days - circa 1986

Earlier this week I received the Spring 2007 edition of Visions, the Iowa State University Alumni Association's magazine. I love when this little bit of Midwestern / Iowa State news arrives in my mailbox. I usually read it, cover-to-cover, the same day it arrives.

This issue was especially reminiscent as it celebrated the 150th Anniversary of Iowa State. One of the features was a timeline, beginning in 1858 when ISU was founded as the Iowa Agricultural College.

As I neared the 1980's, the highlighted events began to sound very familiar and I easily remembered most of them. My first year at ISU was 1986 (21 years ago!!!!-- yikes!). That was the year the Program for Women in Science and Engineering was founded.

But it was one of the items from 1987, my sophomore year in college, that really stood out. That year the ISU Library's card catalog began to go online. It wasn't fully computerized until 1992.

"Imagine that," I thought. "I guess I did spend my entire college career flipping through long drawers of cards, trying to find a book or other reference material."
How did I ever do research without Google and the vast resources of online information?

How did I write my term papers without Word? There was only one building with "computer labs" on campus at that time and it was nothing short of a miracle if you were able to find a computer that was not being used. And, since I'd never taken a "computer" course, I wouldn't have known how to use one anyway.

Further on in the timeline it was evident how quickly technology creeped into the every-day at ISU.

* In 1991 all students began paying a mandatory computer fee.

* In 1996 The ISU Card was introduced, allowing students, faculty and staff one universal (computerized) card for library privileges, access to univeristy events, food service, and even banking and financial services. That is a far cry from my days at ISU, waiting in lines hundreds of students long, for hours upon end, trying to get my student loan check.... an actual PAPER check.

* In 2001, the first students graduated from the online Masters in Agriculture program.

Flash forward with me to 2023. The Year Adam Gradutes from High School.

He will have heard all about the "olden days" when his mom and dad were in college.

No computers!

They sat in classrooms where the professor taught in person!

They took class notes in long-hand!

In notebooks!

Oh, the horror.