(Excerpted from James F. Willis, Southern Arkansas University: The Mulerider School’s Centennial History, 1909-2009, pp. 346-348)
SAU’s academic program continued to adjust to new technology and society’s needs. New bachelor’s degrees were added in agriculture science, athletic training, criminal justice, exercise science, nursing, and social work. New master’s degrees were added in education and library science. A cooperative arrangement with the University of Arkansas at Little Rock (UALR) provided an MBA at SAU via compressed video. The Internet that exploded in the 1990s made this form of distance learning from UALR possible.
The Internet and the rapidly growing job market for computer science graduates led SAU to upgrade its computer science offering in 1996 from a minor to a major in the math and computer science department. A business-oriented degree in computer science information systems (CIS) had been established years earlier in the 1970s not long after SAU first computerized its registration and other processes. Dr. Albert Stecker had established the CIS program. Engineering Professor Ivan Brown and student assistant David Keith, who later became the longtime director of computer services, handled the mainframe that then dominated the world of computers. After Brown’s untimely death, SAU’s principal computer was named IVAN in his honor. Increasingly, personal computers (the PC) replaced the dumb terminals linked to central processing. In 1991–92, Keith and his staff linked these office and classroom personal computers to a fiber-optic campus network that in turn was connected to the Internet. The increasing reliance upon computers at SAU required a doubling of the technology staff from four in 1982 to nine by 1991.
In 1971, Professor Ivan Brown shows SSC President Dr. Imon E. Bruce the college’s new mainframe computer housed in Wilson Hall. (Click photo to enlarge)
Technology Services staff in 2000: back row, l. to r.: Kathy Cole, assistant director of distance learning; Eric Jones; Greg Heuberger, director of technology services; Gary Hickson; Pam Burton. Seated, l. to r.: Joseph Haney; Doris Malone; Cindy Young. In front: Jim McCollum (Click photo to enlarge)
This new technology enhanced, some would say revolutionized, teaching and learning at SAU. Dr. Edward P. Kardas, SAU’s Macintosh computer guru, successfully promoted the establishment of fellowships for technology in teaching to reward faculty who embraced innovative instruction. The pace of technological change was so rapid that Dr. Gamble feared that the costs of updating software and equipment would swamp the budget. Placing Ronnie Birdsong in charge, he tried to exert greater control over its expansion. Among other measures, a ban was announced on maintenance or replacement of computers obtained by external grants, including those that Magale Library had obtained for student use.
Dr. Ed Kardas, Professor of Psychology and Macintosh computer guru. For a time, he also ran a “Mac store” for students and professors to get a discount on purchases from Apple Computers. (Click photo to enlarge)
Computers and the Internet transformed library usage more than any other academic activity on campus. New library directors, first Dr. Kristi Tornquist and later Peggy Walters, eagerly embraced the new technology. As a result, the library’s catalog went online in 1991, and before the turn of the new century, students and faculty had access via the Internet and research databases to as much information as had been available a few years before only in the world’s major research libraries. Magale Library, by 2008, had access to seventy-five databases with thousands of full-text magazines, academic journals, newspapers, government documents, reports, and other research materials.
- Dr. Albert Stecker (Click photo to enlarge)
- In 1971, Professor Ivan Brown shows SSC President Dr. Imon E. Bruce the college’s new mainframe computer housed in Wilson Hall. (Click photo to enlarge)
- David Keith,Student Assistant to Dr. Ivan Brown (Click photo to enlarge)
- Technology Services staff in 2000: back row, l. to r.: Kathy Cole, assistant director of distance learning; Barbara Cooper; Eric Jones; Greg Heuberger, director of technology services; Gary Hickson; Pam Burton. Seated, l. to r.: Joseph Haney; Doris Malone, assistant director of systems; Cindy Young. In front: Jim McCollum (Click photo to enlarge)
- One of several “computer commons” areas at SAU’s Magale Library (Click photo to enlarge)
- Dr. Kristi Tornquist, Magale Library Director in 1994 (Click photo to enlarge)
- Peggy Walters, Magale Library Director in 2007 (Click photo to enlarge)
- Dr. Ed Kardas, Professor of Psychology and Macintosh computer guru. For a time, he also ran a “Mac store” for students and professors to get a discount on purchases from Apple Computers. (Click photo to enlarge)