Grumpy Old Editor

The computers are coming! The computers are coming! rings out the yell through the hallowed halls of Old Cabell. A single lantern has been set in the Rotunda tower, so no one can say that we haven't been warned.

Some schools, like Darden and Law, don't even need the news. The computers have arrived and occupied these places for quite some time, and surprise, their national rankings have fallen into place. For those who haven't kept up, who missed their early morning wake-up call, the world has not been kind. They are assaulted daily with cries for Accu-Notes, class web pages, and responses to e-mail. They are chided for not being "accessible." And the taunting will only get worse.

'Cause now, you see, they'se got this new thing, this "virtual university." It's the Accu-Notes opponents' virtual hell -- a whole university on-line. You hop on your modem, and in four short years you have your virtual degree.

Is it a good thing? Well, hard to say. Much to the young entrepreneur's dismay, four out of five of my classes (taken in an informal survey of one university student) have a web page that gives out class notes free of charge. And two out of five of those web pages are actually useful. So the virtual university concept definitely helps things get done more easily.

But speaking for the spirit of Mark Edmundson, I'm not so sure initiatives that save me calories are really needed 'round here. If folks are really concerned with saving whole minutes of my spare time, then stop towing my car. Don't make it easier for me to skip class. Don't help me avoid actual interaction with fellow thinking students.

I don't think that anybody will come riding in proclaiming the advent of a virtual U.Va. anytime soon. Color me regressive, but I'm a little thankful for the delay. I'll be kicked out of the nest soon enough. And five years from now, when everybody has virtual discussions and e-mails in their papers, I'll light a lantern in the Rotunda for them.

Viewpoint consists of the majority opinion of the managing board of The Declaration and is written by the executive editor on a weekly basis.