DEC-20 was retired in 1988 I think. Also this was when the computer lab (WACCC) was in the library- before it moved to the CS building.

Also, the hackers were big users of the the wpi.* USENET groups (which were a replacement of the TOPS-20 MM groups- actually one of the first student written UNIX programs was 'bboard'- because they didn't have news installed on the Encore at first).