In 1995, the Center initiated its own Internet list, CTES-L (ctes-l@ebbs.english.vt.edu) and subsequently mounted a WWW home page. (This list is now the CATH list: cath@ebbs.english.vt.edu). Also in 1995, Dean Robert Bates, of the College of Arts & Sciences, recognized CTES as a College Center. CTES was established to improve the theory and methodology of textual study through teaching, research, and outreach. While located in Carol Newman Library, Room 216 (1996-August 2000), the Center helped to provide the resources, technology, and expertise to enable undergraduate students, graduate students, and faculty throughout the University to study, edit, and produce texts in traditional and electronic format.
In Fall 1996, a new initiative was launched by members of the College of Arts & Sciences to increase the scope of CTES, in part as a response to the impending construction of the Advanced Communications & Information Technology Center (ACITC ). By attracting additional members and support from the Center for Interdisciplinary Studies, Computer Science, Information Systems, and other areas of the College, the new entity, renamed CATH, hopes to attract new sources of funding for fellowships and equipment.
CATH attracts individuals engaged in Humanities-based research, teaching, and/or outreach projects requiring intensive application of cutting-edge technology and robust infrastructural support. The Center demonstrates the benefits of interdisciplinary conversations and collaborations. Interaction of this sort has resulted in significant cross-fertilizations, drawing together a variety of units across the University, such as the Center for Digital Discourse and Culture, the Institute for Distance and Distributed Learning, the Scholarly Communications Project, the Digital Libraries Project, and many departments. By providing a facility where such exchanges and cross-fertilizations can occur, CATH aims to enhance the three-fold mission of Humanities faculty, students, and community members to excel in research, teaching, and community service and outreach. Already, the energies of CATH members have enabled us to acquire equipment (through the Equipment Trust Fund and donations from Sun Microsystems) and state-of-the-art facilities in the Advanced Communications and Information Technology Center (Torgersen Hall). Members have collaborated nationally and internationally on research projects, conferences, publications, and grant proposals. CATH provides web-hosting services, MOO servers, experimental learning environments, composition and grammar training and testing (the English Department's Grammar Gym; "Write, Invent, Think"; Whiz Quiz), and threaded discussion and e-mail list support to units across the University, as well as major scholarly groups around the world.