Tech Time Capsule: Rutgers Faculty Take a Nostalgic Look Back on Their College Essentials

I attended Rutgers College from 1975 to 1979. When I graduated, I was considered technologically savvy because I had an electric typewriter that used a cartridge instead of a ribbon. I was able to press a button and pop it out without getting ink all over my hands.

Our music came from component stereo systems with four-foot high speakers, a turntable on which we played records (vinyl) at either 33 1/3 or 45 RPM, and FM radio. We received our mail in our Rutgers Post Office boxes located in the recently torn-down Records Hall. I lived in Frelinghuysen Hall and we had pay phones on each end of the hallway that served every student on that side. We did not have a landline phone in our rooms. We watched TV on analog, over-the-air sets with rabbit ears antennas.

Finally, we signed up for classes by hand. If I wanted to drop or add a class my first year, I had to fill out an add/drop slip, get it signed by the department for which I wanted to add the course, signed by the department for which I wanted to drop the course, and get it signed by the Rutgers College Dean's Office. I then had to get on a bus and ride up to the Administrative Services Building on the Busch campus to get it approved. If in the 30-45 minutes the course filled, I had to go through the entire process all over again.

Steven Miller, professor of professional practice and director of undergraduate journalism and media studies, School of Communication and Information, Rutgers-New Brunswick