By Matt Kelly

Nov. 14, 2003 — For 10 points: Who was Henry Martin?

Time’s up.

Martin is the subject of one of 79 questions in a trivia test that has been added to the University’s Web site, linked to the All About the University page.

The quiz is the brainchild of Nancy A. Tramontin, director of University Web Communications, and Albert “Trey” Mitchell, senior web developer, who designed it.

It uses a series of questions first composed five years ago for an alumni site that was never built. Local author Susan Tyler Hitchcock, who has written a pictorial history of the University, worked with the questions and the answers to come up with the current pool.

“We’re always on the lookout for new [computer] applications that students, alumni, and others can use to connect with each other or connect back to the University,” said Tramontin. “The result is a fun and low-cost ‘game’ for the University community.”

The quiz offers up 10 multiple-choice questions in a round, drawn from the pool of 79. The questions repeat randomly after a quiz taker goes through all of them, but Mitchell does not see this as a problem.

“It’s unlikely one individual is going to go through it eight times,” Mitchell said. “And even if you have [gone through all the questions] over the course of several weeks or several months, by the time ... you start over again, I think the questions will still be fresh.”

To be successful, players need to be familiar with the history and lore of the University — such as knowing the original purpose of Madison Hall or the name of the professor shot on the Lawn whose death prompted students and faculty to develop the Honor System.

The quiz is designed as a learning experience. If the player keys in the wrong answer, the correct answer appears on the screen, followed by brief details.

“It also has the ability to give you your overall score and [gives you] the ability to challenge a friend,” said Mitchell. “Say you have gone through and really smoked it, 90 or 100 percent, and you want to send it off to some of your friends and see if they can beat your score, it has that feature built in as well.”

Mitchell does not track the results of individual winners.

Introduced in at the end of August, the quiz has already attracted more than 7,800 hits.

Oh, and for those taking notes, Henry Martin was the bell-ringer at the Rotunda from 1845 to 1915, Madison Hall was originally built in 1905 as a YMCA and the professor whose death inspired the Honor System was John A.G. Davis, chairman of the faculty and a law professor, who was shot by a rambunctious student on the Lawn in 1840.