Keller Plan Accounting.
Technically called Personalized Self Instruction (PSI), the Keller
Plan for Introductory Accounting was first put into place in 1978. The PSI for Accounting
consisted of two lab periods a week which were not mandatory. There were 16 learning units on
which a student worked at his or her own pace. Using the same text as the one for the lecture
plan section of the course, a student took a short written test when he or she felt ready to
complete a unit. Students earned points by passing these mastery tests, doing projects, and
completing a midterm and final examination. (See 1973)
WNTC/WTSC Merger.
Clarkson's two radio stations merged into one organization with two
separate air signals for its expanded facility in the basement of Hamlin-Powers dormitory. This
involved moving WNTC out of the Chemistry Annex behind Old Main into space formerly
occupied by WTSC, the
Clarksonian
, and a laundry room. Only one station manager would
control both stations; Stacey Spanos was chosen to be the first manager.
New Faculty.
Appointed to the faculty and staff were Seth Chichester, director of physical
plant and services; Thomas H. Ortmeyer, ECE; and M. Sathyamoorthy, MIE.
K2CC Helped Traveller.
In October, Bob Dianetti, member of Clarkson's amateur radio club
K2CC, signed on to the New York Public Operations Net (NYPON), and after handling some
traffic signed off at 6:00 p.m. when the net closed. Even though they officially were "off the
air," some operators had discovered that they were able to couple their equipment to telephone
lines and thereby permit third parties to converse. One famous application of this capability was
a net in Europe that permitted servicemen in Germany to talk to their families in the United
States without paying the high cost of overseas telephone calls.
Deciding to try some long-distance work, known as DX, Bob's efforts were rewarded
with a call from HH2EW in Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti. The operator there, an
American named Mark Welch, had a problem: he wanted to fly to San Francisco, but because
he couldn't get through to the airlines to make the reservations, he asked Bob to call the
American Airlines toll-free number and make arrangements for him. Bob had to run from the
studio on the second floor of Woodstock Lodge to Moore House because the station's telephone
couldn't make calls off campus. Reservations were made, and the favor was granted.
All this cooperation had been made possible through the earlier efforts of Ken Cooper
'57 who had convinced Harris Corporation to donate a $16,000 radio along with two $1,300
remote control antenna couplers for the club's new antenna atop Woodstock Lodge. These
additions gave K2CC one of the most effective signals of any amateur radio station in the entire
Northern New York region. The antenna tower is twice as high as the old one, and the new
antenna doubled the size of the old one.
BS in Computer Science.
Offering the Computer Science option in mathematics since 1971,
the math department implemented a new Computer Science Degree designed to teach students
to solve problems in a logical manner instead of merely grouping instructions together
randomly. Such courses as Software Tools and Techniques and Structural Programming helped
the students master the vagaries of the various programming languages. This degree program
concentrated on the importance of mathematical foundations because students so well grounded
in the fundamentals learned much more quickly that those with a smaller base.
