Parents recall college life from a simpler time.
By Adam Hunter 
I went to college before Facebook.
Yes, it seems so long ago, the first four years of the 21st century. Kids entering college this year never knew a world without the Internet, cell phones and laptop computers. But there was a time even longer ago when teens went off to college with little more than a few sheets of paper and a couple of pencils.
How did college students in that Paleolithic era survive such primitive conditions? And what do they think of the brave new world facing college kids today?
College in Cave People’s Times
In 1965, a handsome, muscle-bound 17-year-old Jersey boy named Stephen first walked onto the campus of Ohio State University. That boy would later become my dad. At around the same time, my mom, Carol, entered the University of Bridgeport in Connecticut. Neither had visited their campuses before. Science fiction hadn’t even dreamed up virtual tours.
“The only things with moving parts that I brought to college were my typewriter and a transistor radio,” 
my dad says. Mom’s only electronic luxury was a hair dryer—a “bonnet dryer,” like those found in salons today, except portable. Picture a space helmet with a long hose coming out of it, connected to a big box plugged into the wall. “Hand-held blow dryers hadn’t been invented yet,” she says.
My parents weren’t exaggerating. Mabel Freeman, assistant vice president for undergraduate admissions at OSU, graduated in the class of 1966 and paints a similar picture of the grim conditions endured by our collegiate ancestors. “In the lobby of the residence hall was a television for all of us to ‘share,’ and at the end of each floor in the residence hall would be one or two telephones we could use,” Freeman says. “Next to our typewriters we made sure we had not only a supply of paper but also the necessary carbon paper for the messy copies we made. It sounds a tad prehistoric now, doesn’t it?”
“We would call home collect only once a week because long-distance calls were so expensive,” my dad recalls. “I sent postcards home.” “I wish we had webcams back then,” my mom says. “That would have helped me be a lot less homesick in college.”
Class of 1970 Princeton University graduate Paul Hagga also remembers his dorm mates sharing one phone. “When you answered the phone there was about a 5 percent chance that it was for you, and an even lower chance that you would deliver the message in an accurate and timely manner if it was for someone else.”
Hagga used his manual typewriter to his advantage. “I was one of about 10 or 20 percent of my classmates who could type, so I made extra money typing papers for 50 cents a page. There were always ads on 3-by-5 cards in the library entrance from typists who would type your papers for you.”
Ron Ghilino graduated from Rutgers University in 1980, and his oldest son starts there this fall. He remembers using giant computers to do his class work. “In the late ’70s, students had to type in data on punch cards, hand it to a technician to run through a reader and wait an hour for it to be processed,” Ghilino says. “Millions of trees died from the volumes of computer paper and punch cards that were needed.
“I commuted to college, and it would have been helpful to have the Internet and e-mail to save me from traveling back and forth for simple meetings and educational resources,” Ghilino says. “It would have saved me hours, if not days, of time over four years.”
College in the Digital Age
Ruth Sabean majored in math and science at a small northeastern liberal arts school in 1958. She’s now assistant vice provost and director of educational technology at UCLA. “My kids got a computer for a high school graduation gift,” she says. “I got a Smith-Corona.
“I learned calculus with a pencil, paper, a slide rule and a thick textbook,” Sabean says. “Math majors today learn it with interactive media presentations. When I went to grad school, calculators weren’t allowed. They were seen as a crutch. Now they’re commonplace.”
Sabean is actively involved in UCLA’s efforts to expand the use of technology in the classroom. Each year the university presents the Brian P. Copenhaver Award to recognize faculty members who pioneer technological ways to improve undergraduate instruction. This year’s winners included a professor of Chicana and Chicano studies who created an online “interactive digital mural,” and a political science teacher who created software that uses computers and cell phones to assist students in gathering survey data. “Students are actively engaged with the material,” Sabean says.
OSU’s Freeman says today’s students are expected, but not required, to bring a wide variety of electrical devices with them to college. The university’s “Buckeye Bound” newsletter, sent to incoming students each spring, suggests parents buy their graduating high school senior a computer, DVD player, flash drive, MP3 player, cell phone or PDA, digital camera and high-tech calculator, among other items.
An autumn 2006 survey of OSU students living in residence halls found that only 1.7 percent had no computer and that 78.4 percent owned a laptop. Freeman notes that the school provides 24-hour labs on campus for computer-less students. An autumn 2005 survey of entering OSU freshmen found that 49 percent brought a digital camera, 77 percent brought a TV, 75 percent brought an MP3 player, 39 percent brought a video-game system and 92 percent brought a cell phone. “I have no doubt that for 2007 those figures will be even higher,” Freeman says.
Ghilino marvels at his son’s iPod. “The whole concept of downloading music from a remote source then onto a mini-device that holds thousands of songs is incredible to me. My album collection looks ready for the Smithsonian.
“Sometimes I think kids are too dependent on their technology, but they need it to 
thrive in the world,” he says. “My son can register for courses and pay tuition online. Every student has their own e-mail address. Emergency notifications are sent on cell phones. It’s pretty cool.”
“Classrooms today are outfitted with some amazing technologies,” says Amy Murray, a spokeswoman for OSU. “Instead of overhead projectors from our parents’ days, most large lecture halls have consoles that look like a production studio. Most professors put their lecture notes and syllabus on a Web site, and a growing number are recording lectures and making them available via Internet podcasts. Term papers can be PowerPoint presentations and contain images, music, even animations.”
Some courses are conducted entirely on the computer, which is useful for soldiers overseas and others who can’t be on campus for classes. Wired, or Haywire?
This new technology on campus does raise a few concerns, however. Sabean notes that in the past, she used Encyclopedia Britannica to do research; now many students use Wikipedia. “They need to be careful to make sure their information is reliable,” she says. The availability of so much data on the Internet also can encourage plagiarism. But yet another technological advance seeks to address that issue. Murray points out that OSU and many other universities now use an online resource, turnitin.com, which compares students’ papers with previously published works.
My mom, now a college professor herself, cites another common complaint: “My students e-mail me regularly and expect instantaneous replies. Sometimes I’m online till the wee hours getting caught up.” Sabean agrees. “Fifteen years ago, faculty didn’t realize what would happen if they said, ‘Just e-mail me.’ My husband is a professor, and e-mail is burying him alive.”
Some people question whether all the technology detaches students from college life. “On any campus in America, if you watch students walking back and forth to classes, the vast majority are either listening to music on their iPods or talking on their cell phones,” Freeman says. “How much stimulation do today’s students really need? Do students ever just allow themselves some quiet moments just for thinking and reflecting? In the 1960s we had to engage in conversations with others walking to class or just be alone with our own thoughts as we walked across the Oval. I think we were OK with that reality. “Of course,” she admits, “we didn’t know what we were missing.”
What are your nostalgic tech memories?
