Comments on the administrative/academic interface

Wheaton College began with data processing twelve to fifteen years ago with the use of a 402 accounting machine for the college accounting system. This was soon replaced with the 403 and then a 407 as the applications began to expand beyond the business office into the area of student records. In time the 407 was combined with a 1620 computer, and with the acquisition of the 1620 computer students soon became involved.

For a few years, the administration and the academic areas used the 1620 jointly, with a scheduling of each group to particular time periods. However, by 1969 the use of the 1620 by both groups had become so heavy that at certain time periods there weren't enough hours to go around, and each group tended to need to have the computer when the other one was supposed to have it. Students would need it to get class assignments done and the administration needed it to get out some reports. At this time, the college decided that the only effective solution was to get two separate computer systems for the college, one for each group. Hence the 1620 and 407 combination was replaced by a 360/20 for the data processing department and an IBM 1130 was ordered for the academic departments to use. I do not know what the organizational plans were for the administering of the 1130 operation.