Birmingham Southern College - Southern Accent Yearbook (Birmingham, AL)

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Hello Olin. Academic c Olinland By Phillip Bohannon In case you ' ve missed it, the Olin Com- puter Science and Mathematics Fa- cihty is the large thing on your left on the way to the dorms. When it opened in fall of this year, it brought the use of computers to the attention of the col- lege community as it had never been before. At the same time, the computer power easily accessable by students in- creased drastically. The Olin Building was paid for by a grant from the Olin Foundation of New York, an organization which habitually funds new buildings on college campuses. The Olin Foundation is very selective; that Birmingham-Southern was chosen as both an honor for the college and a testament to the tenacity and skill with which President Neal Berte courted the selection committee. On the exterior, the building ' s archi- tecture blends well with the Yeilding Chapel, the Planetarium, and the Rush Learning Center. Inside, it departs from the campus norm with a full length skylight, decorative columns, lots of pastels — folks, this is a very pretty building. This text is just a caption for the picture; you can see what it looks like, but there ' s more to it than that. Will the education provided by the college be as affected as the society around us by the move to computers? Besides a few hours saved typing a paper, and a place to model Miami Vice style clothes, will this building and its resources mean anything to the average student? May- be. O.K., probably. The computer will continue to ap- pear in more aspects of the college curriculum, until all but the most deter- mined student will be a moderately skilled user of the computer ' s services. But, just as any school can teach one to read, the local technical college will happily turn you into a consumer. With a nod to the liberal arts credo, perhaps the ' Southern graduate can be a critical computer user. As computers are re- sponsible for more and more of the country ' s information, the degree to which this information is trusted and the uses to which it is put must be watched carefully, and watched by people who understand what ' s going on. Who knows, some day a bad program may be as dangerous as a bad idea. Anyway, it is a pretty building. [ anice Winters utiiizes (he ease of P.C. Writer to type her way through B-SC. 24 — Academics

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Dr. Baiiey makes frequent stops on his daily waJks to chat with passing students. Dr. Bailey ' s office door is aJways open to aid the stray theater ma- jor who ended up in biology with pre-meds. A classic. This picture appeared in Dr. Baily ' s retirement program and typifies his keen sense of humor. Dr. Bailey— 23

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The Home of many rodents and aves for years— this spot is des- tined to become the home of Oiin Center. Cliaplain Stewart Jackson ' s son. fohn Stewart, watches as the shapeless concrete and steei be- gins to take on a most unusual shape. The sJjyJight in Oiin casts an in- teresting shadow down the dark pastei corridors. By night the skylights continue to giow with the heip of energy efficient neon tubes. The Lewis Patterson Memorial Library is used for more than storing computer software. Nikki Walton and Mike iWcCiure find it to be an inviting place to prepare programs for class. Oiin— 25