Leverett, Currier to Install Terminals

Students should be able to use ten new computer terminals in Currier and Leverett Houses by next week.

New England Telephone workmen have been installing lines in the two Houses since Friday, Lewis A. Law, associate director of the Science Center said. Phone lines will be hooked up to the five new terminals in each house by tomorrow or Friday, he added. A cut in the telephone line at Leverett House prevented hook-up earlier this week, Law said yesterday.

These ten terminals are the first of 40 the school ordered last year. Among the 30 terminals still undelivered are four more display terminals and two line print terminals destined for the two Houses, Law said. The rest will go to the Science Center terminal room, which already houses about 30 terminals.

The Science Center will also get a second 1170 computer to reduce the delay in computations and printouts, Law said.

A single faculty budget funds the 1170 computers and the terminals, used primarily without charge by students. The new terminals will cost about $500,000, Law said.

However, students will have to pay to work on a new Digital VAX 11 780 machine, which will be ready for use next week, Law said.

William H. Bossert '59, McKay Professor of Applied Mathematics and instructor in Natural Sciences 110, "Automatic Computing," said yesterday he is "just euphoric" about the new additions to the computer facilities. With more facilities available, professors can teach more information, he added.

"We have already been assigning much more homework this year than we did last year," because students will be able to complete the additional assignments, he added.

Bossert said the access to more terminals will allow students to make use of computer terminals at reasonable hours, "like at eight o'clock in the morning." Although some student always leave their term projects to the last minute, thus overcrowding terminals, "the crisis in reading period will be manageable," he added.

The number of students in introductory computer courses has vastly increased, Denise D. Williamson '82, a terminal watcher at the Science Center, said yesterday. Even so, crowding on the terminals so far has gone down slightly, she added.

Williamson said that the number of terminal watchers working at the Science Center has doubled this year so that two are on call for every shift in the terminal room.