Updated: The event happens this Thursday, not Wednesday, as previously reported.
In 1983, according to university lore, Drexel published an admissions brochure that helped to justify the reason it had enacted the Microcomputer Project, which required all incoming freshman to own a personal computer.
“…In every field of endeavor the successful professional will be required to use computer technology routinely to understand and deal with the ordinary day-to-day challenges of professional life,” it was written.
Not a bad bet.
After uproar that the costs of the computers would be too much for students, two-thirds of which relied on financial aid, Drexel President W.W. Haggerty assured students that the cost of those computers would be covered by financial aid, a progressive move for small university in Philadelphia. So it began negotiating with a computer company based in Cupertino, California called Apple.
In the fall of 1984, the first students received their Macintosh personal computers. A banner hung in Drexel’s Main Building, on Chestnut Street, celebrated the occasion with a simple slogan, perhaps a nod to Apple’s future branding efforts: “MacAdemia.” You can see more photos, like the one above, at Drexel’s Flickr account.
On Thursday, Drexel will screen the new documentary Going National, which tracks the story of what brought Steve Jobs to Philadelphia. A university representative says that the documentary was in the works before the passing of Steve Jobs. A panel will conclude the screening that includes, among others, Director Dean David Jones, Apple blogger John Gruber, and Sheldon Master, who was on the original sales staff for Apple.
The event goes from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. this Thursday, Nov. 10, and will take place at Drexel’s Library Learning Terrace at 33rd and Race. It is open to the public, but RSVP here.
For other Philadelphia Apple stories, see:
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