Electronic Campus center re-named for Rickman

rickman plaque web

Northwest Board of Regents President Bill Loch, right, presents a proclamation
to Dr. Jon Rickman, vice president for information systems, commending
Rickman for his 30-plus years of service to the University. The regents recently
approved the re-naming of Northwest's Electronic Campus Support Center in
Rickman's honor.

In recognition of Dr. Jon Rickman’s more than 30 years of service to Northwest, the Board of Regents recently approved a recommendation from President Dean L. Hubbard to rename the Electronic Campus Support Center in Rickman’s honor.

Rickman, who joined the Northwest faculty in 1976, served as director of computing services for 20 years before assuming his current position, vice president for information systems, in 1996.

"I consider it a real honor to have my name on the Electronic Campus Support Center," Rickman said. "Keeping the Electronic Campus operational, up-to-date and affordable for over 20 years has been an exciting and challenging journey."

The re-named facility, which occupies the former National Guard armory on the corner of Memorial Drive and College Park Drive, will henceforth be known as the Jon T. Rickman Electronic Campus Support Center. It serves as the administrative, maintenance and support hub for Northwest’s Electronic Campus.

During the 1980s, Rickman played the lead administrative role in the creation of the Electronic Campus, which was deployed in 1987. The first comprehensive, interactive computer network of its kind at a public university in the United States, the system initially served students, faculty and staff through more than 2,300 data stations.

Groundbreaking in its day, the network was the subject of extensive national media coverage and garnered headlines in “The Washington Post” and “USA Today.”

In the two decades since, Rickman has remained instrumental in maintaining Northwest’s national reputation for putting the latest information technology into the hands of all members of the University community, especially students.

Most recently, he has overseen the upgrading of Northwest’s laptop program, which this fall will provide all full-time students with fully loaded notebook computers whether or not they live on campus.

Other accomplishments include the design and implementation of a fiber-optic IP network comprising a 256-gigabit campus switch connected to numerous building switches, wireless access points and approximately 5,000 computers. Rickman’s information technology team has also installed in excess of 60 servers that provide campus computer users with a comprehensive set of Internet and Web services.

Currently, the Rickman Center supports approximately 22 computer labs, 800 desktops, 100 electronic classrooms and -- in conjunction with the Northwest Missouri Education Consortium -- 13 Internet-connected interactive television classrooms located across northwest Missouri.

An Educational Benchmarking Inc. survey gave Northwest’s residence hall computing services an overall No. 1 ranking in 1999 as well first-place rankings within the University’s Carnegie classification in 1998, 1999 and 2002.

Beyond providing administrative vision and technical expertise, Rickman has been a devoted custodian of Northwest’s computing heritage and acts as curator of the University’s Jean Jennings Bartik Computing Museum, which is located on the second floor of the B.D. Owens Library.

Bartik, who graduated from Northwest in 1945, was one of six women programmers chosen by the U.S. military to work on ENIAC, the world's first electronic computer. Over the years Rickman has maintained close ties to Bartik, who received an honorary doctorate from the University in 2002. His work publicizing her contributions as a computing pioneer include overseeing production of two video documentaries featuring interviews with Bartik (conducted by Rickman) and descriptions of her accomplishments.

A scholar and teacher as well as an administrator, Rickman has authored or co-authored numerous books and articles, including 1992’s “The Electronic Campus” and 2001’s “The Electronic Campus and Beyond” (with President Dean L. Hubbard).

For more information, please contact:

Anthony Brown,
News Bureau Manager
E-Mail: abrown@nwmissouri.edu
Phone: 660.562.1704
Fax: 660.562.1900

Northwest Missouri State University
219 Administration Building,
800 University Drive
Maryville, MO 64468

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