Despite all the year 2000 media attention, the College, like the rest of the world, did not experience massive complications as a result of Y2K computer problems.
Slight glitches arose for a reported few thousand users of Macintosh computers who discovered that their versions of BlitzMail were not Y2K compliant, the College's Computing Services department said.
Macintosh computers containing versions of BlitzMail older than 2.5.3 read the new date 2000 as 1944 instead, the earliest date that Macintosh computers recognize.
New versions of BlitzMail were sent to every student on campus, and users who had encountered flaws in their systems upgraded their software easily.
Officials said that only half a dozen Windows users found problems with their own BlitzMail versions.
"This was just a little bump in the road," Chief Programmer at Computing Services James Matthews said. "We should get over it smoothly."
Hospital administrators at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center agreed that all had gone well during the transition from 1999 to 2000.
Four generators were on hand at the hospital, along with five fuel tanks. Plans were put in place to ensure delivery of the hospital's 200 most important supplies throughout the New Year's weekend. Fuel would be delivered to the hospital for an additional three weeks following the turnover to the new century in case the phone system did not operate after midnight on New Year's eve.
Engineering officials also turned on the hospital generators for a half-hour while the clocks turned from 1999 to 2000.
These contingency plans are always in place at the hospital, regardless of the heightened concern around this New Year's eve.
"We have these backup plans all the time," one staff member said. "We were pretty much just fine-tuning them."
The hospital does disaster drills two to four times a year, in anticipation of power outages and system failures similar to the technological ones expected from the Y2K bug.
There were no problems with the College's central computing systems, Director of Computing Services Communication Bill Brawley said.
However, an extremely large and old computer nicknamed "D1" by the computing staff at the College did encounter some technical complications.
"D1 was previously used for everything imaginable -- academic issues, and administrative issues -- it used to be the hub of the College," Brawley said.
The venerable computer had a few operating system difficulties in turning to the new century, but Brawley said that the computer's impact on life at Dartmouth would be minimal, since Kiewit Computing Services officials planned on finally shutting it down this week.
Students returned to campus later this year after break. Classes start on Jan. 5, instead of the usual commencement of winter classes around Jan. 3.
This schedule change was made not because of Y2K concerns, Registrar Polly Griffin said, but because the College wanted to allow students more time with their friends and families on this particularly important New Year's celebration.
"All in all, the College planned very well, and [the transition] was seamless. Smooth as silk," Griffin said.
