By 1975, there were more than 4,300 full-time students, 6,700 apprentices and 900 staffers at NAIT. The Ditto machine was the duplicating technology of the day and staff perks included discount haircuts by Hairstyling students. Staffers of 35-plus years reflect on changes to campus life and technology.

Lina Giordano

Instructor
Medical Laboratory Technology
Started August 1975

The job was manual. "When I started, 100 per cent of our slides were examined and we did manual differential counts, where we categorize white blood cells. Now that's all done by an instrument and the only slides we look at are those that are flagged."

With health-care cuts in the '90s, a lot of labs purchased multi-functional analyzers to increase the volume of testing and decrease staff. "I started with a class of 90 students and in the mid-'90s, we went down to a class of 16 students and we're now at 32."

Culinary students served gourmet meals in a staff-only dining room. "You could come for a seven-course meal and get white-glove service with silverware and crystal for less than $10 - and that included drinks. And you had to wear a suit jacket and tie."

Wayne Larson

(Business Administration - Accounting '69)
Instructor
Digital Media and IT
Started August 1975

Technology always made the job easier. "When the multiple choice scanner was brought in, of course that was met with great celebration . . . There were only a few in the school and we did have some other programs find out about it and they would want to use it."

Before the photocopier, there was the ditto machine. The exam "would be on carbon-loaded paper, and you would run that into the machine and then you would crank the handle . . . and (the exams) would come out in bluish ink. The machine had to be loaded with this fluid that if you inhaled enough of it, you could get high."

Larson estimates he's taught 7,500 students. "They help keep me young."

Jackie Sayers
Lending Services Assistant
McNally Library
Started September 1973

You knew more people. "President (George) Carter used to make a point of knowing everybody's name. He would walk down the hall and say, 'Good morning Jackie. How are you?' Well, everything is so big now."

There were mens' and ladies' hairstyling programs. "We would go on our noon hour to get our hair done. It was very reasonable." Students in the hairstyling programs, which closed in 1991 after 27 years, practised on staff. In 1982, a shave cost 40 cents, a haircut - $1, a perm - $6 and frosting - $4.50.

The library was automated in 1988. The benefit, according to the staff newsletter, was that "rather than thumbing through the card catalogue to find a book, you will be able to find it through information on a computer screen - a much faster process."