E-mail use integral part of campus life

While home mailboxes may not receive more than five letters in a day, e-mail accounts are often flooded with five messages per hour.

"There's a rising use of e-mail as an instrumental resource on college campuses today," said Kenneth Green, visiting scholar at the Claremont Graduate University in Claremont, Calif. and director of the Campus Computing Project. "It provides easy access to people you may not be able to locate so easily, which is especially true on campuses as large as the University of Michigan."

According to the results of a survey, which were released last fall, 32.8 percent of all college courses in the nation use e-mail in some manner, a 25 percent increase from 1996. Green said the ease and reliability of e-mail makes it attractive to students and instructors alike.

PAUL TALANIAN/Daily Assistant history Prof. Kali Israel uses e-mail in a faculty lounge in Angell Hall. E-mail has replaced one-on-one communication between students and professors.

"Everyone is busy and moving around these days, and everyone is playing phone tag," Green said. "E-mail makes communication much simpler."

Communication studies Prof. Michael Traugott said he uses his e-mail account frequently and applauds the increase in the use of e-mail.

"It's a big advantage, in terms of taking care of administrative issues and (taking) care of small questions," Traugott said. "It's a good way to establish contact between students and professors."

LSA junior Alicia Hamilton said she uses e-mail to get in touch with her professors.

"Office hours half the time are so inconvenient," Hamilton said. "E-mail is so much easier.

"It may be very impersonal, but it's not really a big problem for me and I don't care that much," Hamilton said. "E-mail is convenient only because meeting in person is so inconvenient. I think e-mail is a great idea."

But with so much attention on electronic messages, some question whether this type of communication is creating an impersonal world. In a bustling society, many stress communication skills as being essential to getting ahead and contend that use of e-mail seriously hampers this progress.

Engineering first-year student Megan Hart said she rarely uses her e-mail privileges, choosing instead to meet with professors one-on-one.

"Meeting the professor is much more personal; it's like high school," Hart said. "The University is so big. People use e-mail for everything and no one ever meets each other face to face. Plus, there's less misunderstanding when you talk in person."

History Prof. John Dann, who does not own an e-mail account, cites other reasons for choosing office hours via e-mail.

"If I were to get on e-mail, I would just be inundated with messages," Dann said. "I am not directly on e-mail because I want to save as much time for myself as I can."

Dann, who also refuses to surf the Internet, said his dislike of e-mail has stirred up some commotion with his students and colleagues.

"I have a lot of people who are angry with me because I don't have e-mail," Dann said. "Some find it very annoying, but ... I have a phone, I have a fax machine, people can visit me, people can write me letters. And I would always prefer to have a one-on-one meeting."

Traugott, who uses e-mail to correspond with his students on subjects concerning anything from clarifying a point made in lecture to discussing in-depth term papers, said the use of e-mail has become an essential part of his life.

"I don't think the use of e-mail is impersonal at all," Traugott said. "I think it's a very helpful tool. It's a tool to facilitate discussion and it is quite important here at the University."

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