8 things colleges have been slow to adopt

Often considered Luddites, academics were slow to adopt social media--at first. In 2007, only 61% of universities used some form of social media. Today, 100% are using social media--and most of them plan on using it even more next year.

Yes, really. Before 1998, most campuses were using one-ply toilet paper. After a column was written in the Harvard Crimson calling for a switch to two-ply, the top candidates for student government at Ivy Leagues schools began to leverage this issue as a platform. As a result, shortly thereafter, two-ply toilet paper reached the Harvard University dorms.

Oberlin College made the cover of Life Magazine in 1970 when it was one of the first colleges to introduce co-ed dormitories. Even though the dorms were floor-by-floor co-ed, the idea of women and men sharing the same living quarters in any capacity was still considered quite scandalous for much of the 70s.

After the Virginia Tech shooting in 2008, colleges were criticized for their slow adoption of widely accepted security practices. Most colleges didn’t even have surveillance cameras! Soon after, many colleges began to take steps to implement changes that would avert campus violence, one of which was the move from old-fashioned metal keys to electronic key cards.

While “The Pill” was introduced in 1968 and is now widely available to women of all ages, there are still some colleges that don’t allow such methods of contraception. Georgetown University students, for example, have to venture off campus to a CVS Pharmacy if they want to purchase condoms or birth control.

Many campuses around the country first implemented sustainability measures -- recycling, for example -- years ago, but their efforts seem to have stopped there until recent pressure from students and other groups. The student body at Western Washington University agreed to pay up to $10.50 a quarter to buy renewable electricity -- making the school one of the first in the state to go 100 percent green on the main campus.

Debates about the merits of online learning have long existed in the world of higher education. Only recently have colleges started to accept this method as a valid form of education. In fact, last year colleges reported the highest-ever annual increase in online enrollment—more than 21 percent.

At UC Berkeley, after a group of students set up a table with petitions outside of the dining halls—gaining more than 1,200 signatures and the support of more than one-fifth of Berkeley’s dorm population—the University’s administration agreed to provide a fully vegan entrée at every meal.