Dedication of GAATN

Sept. 19, 1994

Dedication of GAATN

Wayne Danielson

Chair, UT Faculty Computer Committee

Good morning.  I am Wayne Danielson, chairman of the Faculty Computer Committee at UT Austin.  It is a pleasure for me to be here today to represent President Robert Berdahl and the University  on this important occasion.

A university is a curious mixture of past, present and future.

The University of Texas is no exception.

Its libraries hold more than 5 million books.  Its computers contain more than three terrabytes of information.  UT is a vast reservoir of knowledge of the past.

But UT teaches in the hurly burly of the here and now.  It passes on its knowledge to the more than 48,000 young men and women who come to study in Austin each year.   UT is very much a part of the present.

UT does the best job it can because it knows that hidden in the minds of its students is an important part of the future.   Together with  faculty members and staff, the young men and women who study at the University will generate the ideas and do the research that will make that future happen.

Through the GAATN partnership, UT will link its main campus with its other campuses in the city and with the UT System offices downtown.  It will do so with data transmission speeds that we could only dream about a few years ago.  This is important.  But even more important, I think, is that GAATN will accelerate the ancient task of the university -- that vital linking of past, present and future the University offers as its chief gift to society.