Imagine a Vassar without Google, Wikipedia or the careless luxury of a tweet about Sophomore Slump. Depending on what generation of Vassar students you belong to you might have just shuddered a little.
Vassar’s internet history has been a relatively young one, having first been introduced a little over fifteen years ago in late 1994. Administrators and alumnae/i joined forces to launch Vassar aboard the revolutionary technology of the time. In true Vassar pioneer style, Andrew Zolli, a Cognitive Science major of the class of ’95 was the principal programmer of Vassar College Online and was central to the coding of the Vassar website, and publicizing and educating the Vassar community on the wonders and utility of the internet.
For the first time ever, Vassar had a homepage with links to its various departments, and resources, exponentially increasing the ease with which information was exchanged – a luxury we take for granted now. Vassar students could access their schedules, information on some (of the more tech-savvy) departments, and library resources for easier research. And all they needed was a seat behind a CRT monitor and “the ability to point and click a mouse”! It was a revolutionary milestone in the socio-educational experience at the college.
Now, almost two decades later, with campus-wide wireless connectivity – from Moodle posts to venting on SayAnything- the internet is central to life at Vassar.
VASS 101: 