After arriving on campus, freshmen will have their eyes opened to a whole new world: BlitzMail.
During orientation, freshmen will get their computers, lug them back to their rooms and figure out how to plug them in, and then forget about their telephones as soon as they log on to the College's electronic-mail network.
Over the ensuing weeks, first year students will constantly battle the urge to sign on to a computer every five minutes to see if they have received any "blitzes."
Because computers are everywhere on campus, students will not suffer from BlitzMail withdrawal. Public computers are located almost everywhere you need to go -- the dining hall, the library and the gym, just to name a few locations.
At freshman dorm parties, it is not uncommon for half the partygoers to gather around the keg, the rest around the computer in order to check their blitzes.
"It's not considered a high-tech, geeky thing," said Jim Matthews, chief programmer for computing services and the man who helped create BlitzMail. "People take it for granted, now it's more like the telephone."
But this form of communication has many advantages over the telephone.
It gives students the ability to stay in touch with each other no matter where they are on campus.
"It's more powerful than the telephone," said Randy Spydell, associate director for consulting, computer services, "because you don't have to be there to receive messages."
But BlitzMail does have its repercussions on relationships and the social system at Dartmouth.
"I've seen people have some pretty weird relationships because of BlitzMail," Spydell said.
"It's easy for people to say a lot more personal things, which can be a godsend or a disaster," he added.
Computer Science major Dave Zipkin '97 said, "BlitzMail makes people socially weird."
"It makes communication easier, but you can't say as many things over BlitzMail because you have to type them," Zipkin said.
"You don't elaborate or chat, you do your business and go on," he added.
Dartmouth, like the rest of the world, is still trying to establish rules of etiquette for electronic mail use, Matthews said.
He asked, "At what point is it rude when you don't respond [to a message] and what kind of language is rude?"
"There are a lot of situations where a person's feelings are hurt because we haven't figured out manners, we don't know what they should be," Matthews said.
BlitzMail is only one example of the broad opportunities in computing open to students through Dartmouth's network.Without leaving their dorm rooms students are able to access not only Dartmouth's on-line library, which includes the complete works of Shakespeare, but also the whole internet.
"The internet is right at their doorstep and all that it has to offer," Spydell said.
"A lot of people believe [the internet] will become as important as the TV and [Dartmouth students] are getting an education in this thing right now which is still esoteric to the rest of the country -- that's a great advantage," he added.
Dartmouth has a long history in the field of computing, including the invention of the time-sharing computer and the BASIC computer language by former College President John Kemeny.
"Together these two things made it possible for Dartmouth to offer the benefits of computing to a wider audience than other institutions could think about," Matthews said. "The computer became a useful tool for people outside the math and science departments."
The philosophy behind computing at Dartmouth was articulated by Kemeny in his "library model."
Matthews described this philosophy: "We don't charge students to take books out of the library, it is a common resource for everyone in the community to take advantage of. With computing we tried to stick to that ideal."
"The greatest number of computing services are offered free of charge and targeted at the widest amount of people as possible," he added.
