Message-ID: <Eiqy8Um00iV20CAUpQ@andrew.cmu.edu>
Date: Tue, 29 Nov 1994 21:23:28 -0500 (EST)
From: "Declan B. McCullagh" <declan+@CMU.EDU>
Content-Type: X-BE2; 12
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To: Fight Censorship Mailing List <fight-censorship+@andrew.cmu.edu>
Subject: Bill Arms Leaves CMU (10/3/94)
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This is an article that ran in the October 3 issue of The Tartan, CMU's weekly school newspaper.


-Declan


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BILL ARMS LEAVES UNIVERSITY


By Heather Zindle

Tartan Junior Staff Writer


On Thursday, September 22 William Arms, Vice President of Computing Services met with President Robert Mehrabian and announced his resignation effective at the end of this calendar year. 

Computing Services, according to Arms, "is responsible for everything on campus that does not get taken care of by someone else." It oversees central computing, clusters, the network, electronic mail, the Andrew system, print services, user support, the help center, the computer store, computer repair, and the telephone system.

William Arms came to Carnegie Mellon in 1985, in a time of great change for computing. In the past, Carnegie Mellon had six large time share computers. The workstation was essentially a monitor and a keyboard, all work was done on one of these main computers. There was a move in the computing world to replace these terminals with personal computers. The Andrew project was one of the first to do so. It was just underway when Arms came to Carnegie Mellon. The Athena project at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Andrew project at Carnegie Mellon were the first two systems that, according to Arms "worked out how to use large numbers of personal computers. The problems arise deal with developing a system that enables all the computers on the network to work together as a team."

Arms oversaw the Mercury project, which was implemented in 1991.  This project developed the Library Information System. It allows students to access information from their personal computers on the network. Carnegie Mellon also became the first university to have a high speed network, all under the direction of Arms.

Dr. Paul Christiano, the Provost said that Arms "did a wonderful job, implementing the campus network, and maintaining computer services. He said "we are all very sorry to see him leave, but I understand why, because after almost ten years at Carnegie Mellon, he sees an opportunity to do something different."

Arms has accepted a position with the Corporation for National Research Initiatives in Washington to work on projects having to do with digital libraries. He feels proud of the changes in the world of computing and the part that Carnegie Mellon has played, but feels that after almost ten years it is simply time to move on. However, he believes Computing Services today is a "strong organization," and he wishes everyone well in the future. 

The search for a replacement has not yet begun, but Christiano will begin to form a search committee, which he is thinking of heading himself. Arms came to Carnegie Mellon in a time of great change, and he is also leaving in a time of change. There is a major undertaking to upgrade the campus network, thus making it faster. There is also increase usage of computers in education and multimedia, especially here at CMU.

Arms, a British citizen, received his degree in mathematics and operation research. He has always worked and been involved with technology. In 1972, he worked with computing applied to higher education at the Open University in England which according to Arms, is one of the foremost Universities for computer systems. In 1978 he moved to the United States and was in charge of computing at Dartmouth college.


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