The History of Residential Computing at Stanford

• Early 80's
• 1984-85
• 1985-86
• 1986-87
• 1987-88
• 1988-89
• 1989-90
• 1990-91
• 1991-92
• 1992-93
• 1993-94
• 1994-95
• 1995-96

• Early 80's

  As early as 1982 "dumb" terminals were located in a few of Residence halls and provided access to Stanford's Low Overhead Time-sharing (LOTS) computers via telephone lines and modems.

• 1984-85

  Fall quarter of 1984 saw the very first micro-computer cluster established in Roble Hall. Stanford received a gift of DEC Rainbow 100 and Pro 350 computers and some were allocated for use in the residences. At this time very few students owned their own computer.

  By Winter quarter DEC clusters were available in 8 houses totaling over 50 computers. Working together with Residential Education, the Computer Science department created an "Intro to Personal Computing" class that was initially offered only in the dorms.

• 1985-86

  By Fall quarter of the 85-86 academic year the Stanford University Network (SUNet) was delivered to many residence halls. Computer data and University cable TV access were now available in common rooms of these dorms.

  During the Spring IBM announced its intention to donate $10 million worth of personal computer equipment to Stanford, $1 million of which would go to residential computing projects. This gift was to arrive in two phases over the next two years. Apple also provided its own smaller gift. Residence staffs were asked to draft proposals to determine whether or not their house would receive clusters. Money was allocated by Housing and Food Services to fund maintenance of this equipment.

• 1986-87

  By the time students arrived for Fall quarter, the first phase of the IBM grant was installed in 6 locations and the Apple grant was installed in 3 locations. Students were hired from within each house to serve as System Administrators to manage each cluster.

  The System Administrator program proved to be successful. A new position was envisioned which functioned more like a Resident Assistant (RA) called a Resident Computer Coordinator (RCC). During Spring quarter the first RCC selection process was undertaken to find staff for the following year.

  During the summer the office of Residential Education hired a full-time director to manage this rapidly growing project.

• 1987-88

  By fall the second IBM phase was installed and clusters existed in every all-frosh and four-class house for a total of about 130 workstations system-wide. Very few DECs remained. The first flock of RCCs kicked off their year with a meager training session.

  During Christmas Roble Hall was closed due to seismic instability. The complete restructuring of this house offered an opportunity to bring networking resources to each room.

  During this year the RCC position was closely evaluated. The Summer was spent planning a more comprehensive training program for RCCs. This training and support would further empower the RCCs and provide them with more resources from inside and outside the University.

• 1988-89

  In fall the Rains Graduate Apartments opened as the first residence hall to provide in-room computer connections. Computers were also provided in two clusters there making Rains the first graduate residence to have clusters. As new houses were built and old ones renovated in future years the number of in-room connections would slowly increase.

  Also During the fall, Student and Faculty needs, as well as some Apple grant opportunities, led to a plan to replace most of the IBMs with Macintosh computers during Spring quarter. Budget savings from previous years were used to help this plan along.

  A residence survey completed in Winter indicated that over 50% of students own some kind of personal computer.

• 1989-90

  The fall quarter began with 24 residence clusters consisting mainly of Macs with a few IBMs. DECs were nowhere to be found. 6 Row sites also had small pilot clusters. The RCCs became identified as a major front line consulting force for students and began to receive support from Apple, Microsoft, Claris and Farallon corporations.

• 1990-91

  Residential Computing survived the first round of Stanford's budget cuts but with a sharply reduced budget. Libraries and Information Resources re-allocated some budget-base funds to Residential Education to support what had by now become a project of strategic importance.

  Apple Computer implemented a computer trade-up program to help Stanford departments and faculty, staff and students purchase new computers. Residential computing traded up most of the Macintoshes purchased in 1989 at this time.

• 1991-92

  Residential Computing cuts 10% of its budget in second round of budget cuts. It had become clear, though, that the program needed to expand to serve all residences and that an equipment replacement budget had to be found. An expansion plan was drafted in time for budget approval in the fall of '92.

• 1992-93

  Plan to expand residential clusters into all of Stanford's residence halls and Row houses approved. Student room and board rate increased by 1% to fund expansion and to assure 3 year upgrade cycle for all cluster equipment. General Plant Improvement funds are allocated to extend the University fiber plant to all residence halls and Row houses. Office of Networking Systems to provide fiber activation equipment to houses and one 10baseT hub in each Row house to activate Row clusters. Opportunities became available to complete in-room connections in five years.

• 1993-94

  First year that all Stanford students have access to a computer cluster in their residence hall. Survey shows that just about 70% of all Stanford students own a computer. In-room connectiosn available to over 6000 of Stanford's 9000 housed students, with approximately 1500 subscribers. New funding allows Residential Computing to undertake more software development initiatives, including networked print accounting, networked software licensing, and on-line staff selection systems utilizing the World Wide Web and SQL databases. Stanford hosts RESNET '94, the first-of-its-kind symposium dedicated to the discussion of academic information technology in college and university residence halls. 105 educators from across the nation and internationally attended.

• 1994-95
• 1995-96

Back to Residential Computing home page.