In 1990 the Computing Center moved from the Hallden Engineering Laboratory to the new MCEC. It remained there until it was combined with the library in 2002.

Macintosh Computer Lab in MCEC

The new building had facilities purpose-built for the needs of the Computing Center. These included two large rooms on the first floor for each with several dozen personal computers on desks to students to use and for the conducting of classes. These rooms had large video projectors mounted on the ceiling connected to a computer for the instructor.

Across the hall there were laser printers and a desk where student workers known as “consultants” were ready to help. On the same floor there was also a computer store where Apple computers could be bought and computers of various makes repaired.

Upstairs there were was a computer lab for the Computer Science department equipped with Sun Microsystems workstations. There were also a number of classrooms with video projectors, video players, and computers for the instructor.

The DEC Vax minicomputer used for administrative functions

Downstairs there were three computer rooms. These rooms had electrical power for the Vax minicomputers which had been moved from Hallden and an air conditioning system which circulated air under a raised floor. From one of these basement computer rooms conduits ran upstairs though a wiring closet on each floor. From the closets the cables route routed through troughs high up on the hallway ceilings behind the lights which ran along the two sides.

Access to the building and to some of the rooms within was controlled by electronic locks which were opened by sliding an ID card with a magnetic strip.

IBM-compatible servers, a CD-ROM tower, and a Sparc server in MCEC

Use of servers based on the IBM-PC increased greatly

During the time that the Computing Center was in MCEC the personal computer revolution was in full swing. The minicomputers in the basement were gradually replaced by a growing assortment of servers running Unix, Windows NT, and Linux.

The local area network run by the Computing Center was gradually expanded into all office buildings. By 1992 wired network connections were available in MCEC, Life Sciences, Hallden, McCook, Austin Arts Center, Clement, Seabury, Downes, the library, and the English department. Deployment to works was also starting with Localtalk connections for Macintosh computers available in Jones, Elton, Jackson, Jarvis, Northam, Cook, Goodwin, Woodward, High Rise, Anadama, and North Campus. This gave students remote access to file servers, the Vax minicomputer, the library card catalog, and the Internet. An article in the Tripod in February 1992 explained that the Internet was “a world-wide computer network that is used by almost every college in the United States, as well as major colleges overseas, various research institutions, government agencies, and companies.” Students could use the Internet to “transfer electronic mail, and files for free to anywhere within Trinity, or the world”. The World Wide Web (i.e., web browsers) would not be come well known until the next year.

Increasingly computers were seen not as scientific tools or an alternative to typewriters but as a means of obtaining information using the Internet. There was an increasing interest in ways that the network could be used in teaching. For example, in 1993 the Writing Center announced a course called “Writing On-Line”. Only the first and last class were to be conducted in person. The rest of the time the students would receive their assignments, submit their work, and receive feedback from instructors and peers over the network.

By 1993 one of the goals of the Strategic Plan was that all or most students should have a computer which could connect to the campus network. Many students bought computers through the Apple computer store in the computing center. The store ran large advertisements in the Tripod during the 1990's.

By 1996 plans were underway to renovate the library building and add a new wing to which the computing center and computer labs would be moved.

In 2002 the Computing Center moved to the new wing of the library and the departments were combined. However, one server room was kept in the basement where networking and telephone equipment remains to this day. The computer labs on the first floor were turned over to the Computer Science department which remained in MCEC.

Trinity Reporter, Spring 1991, pp. 10-12, 14, 15.

Trinity Tripod, April 2, 1992, p. 5.

'Writing On-Line', New Computerized Class, Trinity Tripod, April 27, 1993, p. 8.

Trinity Tripod, March 19, 1996, p. 5.