S C T E CHN I CA L CO L L E G E S Y S T EM ’ S
F I R S T 5 0 Y EAR S
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The 1980s
A D E S I G N F O R T E C H N O L O G I C A L C H A N G E
Image.” Dr. Paul Blowers, newly minted president of ATC, was
concerned about the college’s image and its status among Aiken’s
young people, saying, “ATC is not attracting as many students as
it once did.” He continued, “Students go to ATC if they want a job
but not if they want a career or higher status jobs.” The image of
a technical school bothered him. He brought up the transfer of
credit, an issue with a strong history.
The headline for the second installment read “Aiken Tech-
nical College: Struggling with Today,” July 3, 1985. The lead
read “New Computer Curriculum—Apply Now. The college
has entered the computer age, offering this summer a comput-
er data processing course. The two-year associate degree pro-
gram will qualify graduates for jobs as computer programmers.
Aiken Technical College made a $100,000 down payment on
a $300,000 VAX 780 with state equipment money and student
tuition. The rest will be paid in installments over the next five
years.”
The gist is this. A new two-year associate degree course was
being offered, the first new offering in years. Other associate
degrees, however, were being cut: fashion merchandising, air
conditioning and refrigeration, and textiles. A lack of coun-
ty funding for maintenance and operation of the college plant
was behind the cuts. Without adequate county funds, Blow-
ers reported, he would have to put the new programs on hold
or terminate nearly half of the ten maintenance and custodial
employees.
But $300,000 was being spent on one piece of equipment, that
VAX computer?
Blowers had an explanation. “Tuition should not be used for
maintenance,” he said. “Tuition should be used for supplies, ma-
terials, and equipment, such as buying the computer.”
This second installment carried a telling 5- by 4-inch black-
and-white photograph. Director of Computer Services Teddy
Girou poses by the VAX 780. Her oversize glasses seem to rival
the VAX, which at 60 x 48 x 30 inches looks like a cooling unit
outside a factory. Viewed from today’s world of PowerBooks, iP-
ads, and smart phones, the photo belongs in a museum. Teddy,
standing stiffly, appears to be loading a tape, which looks more
like a slim novel. The caption is as staged as the photograph:
Teddy Girou, director of computer services and programs at Aik-
en Technical College, services the college’s new $300,000 VAX 780
computer. The computer will be used in a new data processing
course, which starts this summer at ATC. Graduates will be quali-
fied as computer programmers.
Behind her hang curtains or is it a classroom divider? Just
where did this miraculous new technology live? Is it on a stage to
be showed off in meetings? The black-and-white photo doesn’t
reveal the VAX 780’s unassuming color scheme of cream, black,
and light blue. Imagine the heat and smell of ozone emanating
from this fan-whirring primordial wonder, a digital marvel that
without doubt represented the future.
In the final installment, “More Degrees to be Added,” Blowers
said, “We’re out of touch” stirring the oft stirred “We should be
a community college cauldron.” Truth be told, Blowers looked
a bit like Julio Bortolazzo, and he too felt the college needed to
offer students more and better options. What’s truly revealing,
however, is how the computer hijacks this three-part series. If
you’re a casual reader, as most are, you look at the headlines, see
1982 1983
1982:
Cincinnati-Milacron relocated to South Carolina because
of the training and resources available through Greenville Tech
citing how “Design for the 80s” put South Carolina’s
technical college system in the national limelight.
1983:
The System introduced two mobile training units
to take advanced machine tool training all over the state.
