MEADVILLE, Pa. — April 30, 2002 — At Allegheny College, students aren’t the only ones experiencing intellectual growth. Even the classrooms are getting “smarter,” especially with the help of the Maytum family of Fredonia, N.Y. Dr. Robert Maytum, Sc.D. ’34, his son Robert A. Maytum ’59 and daughter-in-law Marilyn Schweitzer Maytum ’57 have generously donated more than $500,000 to Allegheny “smart classrooms,” an educational spaces that infuses cutting-edge, multi-media technology into the curriculum.

“Dr. Maytum has been such a supportive person for technology at Allegheny,” says Karen Stone, director of educational computing services. “These classrooms provide faculty members with reliable and consistent access to technological teaching resources, allowing professors to incorporate technology in ways that are appropriate for each discipline and tailored to personal pedagogical strategies.”

The Maytums, the founding family of the Dunkirk and Telephone Company, have supported the creation of five “smart classrooms” at the College: the Maytum Multimedia Music Classroom in Arnold Hall; the Maytum Murray Mulitmedia Classroom in Murray Hall; the Maytum Specialty Student Technology Lab in Murray Hall; the Maytum Carnegie Multimedia Classroom in Carnegie Hall; and the Maytum Quigley Multimedia Classroom in Quigley Hall.

The Maytum family has established a legacy of forward-thinking success, especially in the telecommunications industry, and they have wasted no time supporting progressive ideas and technologies at Allegheny as well. “Allegheny College holds a special spot in each of our hearts,” Dr. Maytum, who graduated from the College in 1934, explains. “We each earned a fine liberal arts education as students there, so our commitment has become a family affair.”

Even the Allegheny education is a family affair — Dr. Maytum’s grandson, Mark, enrolled at the College in 1985.

The “smart classrooms” allow faculty members to explore new technologies for creative rich learning environments. Courses have already incorporated multi-media communications, web authoring skills, online discussion boards, presentation software and other uses of web-based content into the curriculum.

“Among its many other virtues, the ‘smart classroom’ enables students to recognize, confront and thrust themselves into the many layers of the writing process in a way that’s just not possible in a conventional classroom,” says Ben Slote, associate professor of English, who uses the smart classrooms to teach writing. “Through the use of electronic media, students develop writing skills in collaboration with peers and professionals and publish to audiences that extend beyond the traditional classroom.”

Each newly remodeled classroom provides a welcoming study environment for students as well as multimedia devices to enhance student learning. “Many cutting-edge classrooms can be sterile environments,” says Maytum. “Our goal at Allegheny has been to help create a fine learning environment in a comfortable and inviting setting, and I’m impressed that has been achieved so quickly.”

Each classroom features approximately 20 student computer workstations, mounted on custom-built desks with slide-tops for note-taking and keyboards as well as recessed monitors. A podium computer at the front of each classroom uses specialized software known as SynchronEyes, which can display any of the images from the 20 computer workstations onto the projection screen. Other multimedia devices include motorized screens that can project images from a computer, VCR, DVD, cable TV, satellite down-link and “overheads,” such as transparencies, slides and camera negatives.

Founded in 1815, Allegheny College is a nationally recognized, selective college of the liberal arts and sciences in northwestern Pennsylvania. One of 40 colleges in Loren Pope’s Colleges That Change Lives, Allegheny has been recognized by Yahoo! Internet Life as one of the top 85 “most wired” colleges in the nation for the College’s advancements in information technology.

SIDEBAR: A Family Legacy of Forward-thinking Success

In 1892, Arthur Maytum, a grocer in Fredonia, N.Y., founded the Dunkirk and Fredonia Telephone Company. And it would be his grandson, Dr. Robert Maytum D.Sc., who would have the progressive vision and drive to guide the company through an increasingly technological world.

An early pioneer in the frontier of telecommunications, Dr. Maytum learned the family business as a lineman and installer-repairer — and eventually became president and chairman of the company’s board in 1959. Recognized for his lifetime dedication to the telephone industry, he exercised stewardship of the family-owned business, empowering the firm to remain a stable contributor to the Northern Chautauqua County economy for more than 50 years. His expert and adroit management of the telephone company consistently responded to technological opportunities — from the initiation of the first Osborn exchange system in 1959 through touch-tone service in 1967 and paging services in 1985 and, finally, to Internet services in 1996.

Purchased by Lynch Corporation in 1996, the company continues to prosper in Fredonia under the management of the Maytum family. Dr. Maytum continued as chairman of the board when his son, Robert Jr., became the fourth-generation Maytum to assume leadership of the company as president.

Now retired, Dr. Maytum is credited for having the vision and drive to develop the company from 30 employees to more than 100 and expand and diversify services and customer base. A past director of the New York State Telephone Association, he is a past board member and president of the Chautauqua and Erie Telephone Company and past vice president and board member of the Cassadaga Telephone Corporation.

A 1934 graduate of Allegheny College, Dr. Maytum is recognized as an honored businessman, community leader and humanitarian. He and his family, through their quiet philanthropy, have benefited hundreds of Allegheny students through support that has enhanced the College’s computer technology greatly. In addition to six “smart classrooms,” the Maytums have funded two computer training rooms, a refurnishing of the College’s Geographic Information Systems (GIS) laboratory, and the Maytum Computer Equipment Fund.