How College Has Changed Since the 1980s

It feels like an eternity since I was in college from 1984-1988 at what is now the University of West Georgia.

Formerly West Georgia College in Carrollton, Georgia with approximately 1,800 students when I attended, the campus is unrecognizable now as evidenced by its website which I got a peak at.

The campus newspaper, The West Georgian, where I worked all four years, is now online along with everything else. Back in the day we had to take our disks over to the local paper and do paste-up of our paper. The Times-Georgian, the local newspaper then did the printing. It was a two-day affair.

Fast forward to 2007. I drive down University in Fort Worth, TX where I live and see so many students talking on their cell phones. At the risk of sounding like a grandparent, when I was in school if you needed to make a call you had to find a pay phone or office one on campus. Now these kids can't do without their cells and pay phones are becoming obsolete.

In the 80s there was no Internet and no one had a computer in their rooms. If you needed to use a computer you had to go to the computer lab on campus. Roommates were chosen for you by the staff and roommates from hell often resulted.

You couldn't register for classes online because there was no such thing.

Campus security was a joke as was outside lighting, not like now where the place is lit up like a Christmas tree and every few feet is an emergency phone that automatically alerts campus police.

Books were cheap, too. I paid $75 each quarter total for all my books.

Classes were much smaller and a lot of people knew the same students. It was more intimate.

You had to go to the first floor to do your laundry in the dorm and though you could have Hot Pots and toaster ovens in your room, if you needed to make anything more extravagant, you'd have to use the nasty, small kitchen downstairs. If someone else was using it, you'd have to come back or wait.

Chuck Fuller, assistant vice-president for business services at the University of North Texas, said in a Dallas News article recently that now many students coming to college for the first time expect a private bedroom.

At Southern Methodist University (SMU), there's now a waterfall-tanning area.

When I was in college you headed to Love Valley on campus to get a tan or laid out in front of the dorm.

Writer J. Oneill of the Dallas News says that some schools are hesitant to embrace every amenity trend now.

"Frank Shushock, Baylor's Dean of Student Learning, says having students live two to a room works out better for them than providing individual dorm rooms," he writes.

At SMU there's a 40-foot climbing wall whereas in my college days you just went to the campus gym, walked around the track, swam in the indoor pool, or played tennis at the old courts close by. At Baylor University there's a pool with a lazy river and massage therapy among other perks. In my young years (God, I sound so old!) we never heard the term 'lazy river' and massage therapy was unheard of.

At the University of North Texas (UNT) there's a healthy-alternative dining facility compared to my school days when you were stuck with the Student Center or Z-6, the Cafeteria also nicknamed "Z-Sick." The food was really bad at the latter and not much better at the Student Center. Healthy alternatives? Well, you could have some fresh fruit at the Student Center or go buy your own healthy stuff if you had the money.

UNT also has money management and financial counseling available which we didn't have, either. If you wanted to know how to manage your money you'd ask your parents or someone who seemed to be good at it. Or maybe if you were lucky you'd pick up some tips in a college class if you were a business major. As for financial counseling no one bothered. We were all a bunch of irresponsible kids.

And at the University of Texas at Austin students can enjoy the heated outdoor leisure pool with a poolside café. At my Georgia college the only pool was on campus and though it was heated, I believe, there was no poolside café.

If you were hungry you just waited till you got back to your dorm and grabbed something you already had in your miniature fridge, drawers, or closet shelf where you might have stashed some other munchies.