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1st person singular: Student e-mail advances Penn's goals

By Dr. Gerald J. Porter

Ten years ago Penn was described as 12 schools connected by a common steam system. Things have changed! Today the schools are also connected by a common computer network, PennNet. The 1983 report that called for the installation of a computer network envisioned an environment in which the entire University community - faculty, staff, and students - would have access through a network to myriad services, including the library catalog, local and remote databases, bulletin boards, and electronic mail (e- mail). Much of that environment has been realized for faculty and staff. It is time to complete the 1983 plan by providing e-mail for all Penn students.

"Planning for the '90s: Five-Year Academic Plan for the University of Pennsylvania" (Almanac, January 22, 1991) has set the University's goals for the next five years. Surprisingly, student e-mail is not mentioned in this document, although, as shown below, student e-mail can play an important role in achieving some of the goals articulated in the document. [Ed.: All quotations are from "Planning for the '90s."]

Enhance faculty-student interaction: By using e-mail, students and instructors can communicate outside of class and scheduled office hours. Assignments can be submitted and returned by e-mail. E-mail "brings faculty and students together to promote conversation and the exchange of ideas."

Enhance student-student interaction: For most of their working lives our students will be in environments in which they must work and plan together with their colleagues. E-mail facilitates student interaction and makes possible collaborative learning in an environment such as ours, where many of our student residences are geographically dispersed. E-mail can help advance "cross disciplinary, cross-school, and other shared experiences, and [contribute to] an environment rich in intellectual excitement."

Student-student interactions need not be limited to those that occur between Penn students. Through e-mail, students throughout the world may participate in discussions on common interests. In particular, e-mail can "encourage efforts ... to internationalize the curriculum through ... the integration of international perspectives ..." and "encourage the interaction of Penn [students] with faculties and students abroad."

Enhance student-advisor interaction: E-mail makes possible student-advisor interaction outside of the normal "office hour scheduling" channels, provides more timely interactions, and improves the delivery of advising services. E-mail is a "support system ... more active in ... outreach than are the current efforts."

Make information more readily available to students: Through bulletin boards students can access information about courses in their departments, freshman seminars, research opportunities, etc. Through electronic discussion groups students will have access to the most current information on research topics and can communicate with faculty and peers at other institutions about these topics.

In summary, student e-mail enables the University to advance many of its academic goals. Since it takes time for e-mail to be used in the ways outlined above, we must provide this service to our students as quickly as possible and begin to explore its intellectual and administrative ramifications. [Ed.: See Student e-mail task force announcement elsewhere in this issue.]

Note: The opinions in "1st Person Singular" are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the author's organization or the Office of Information Systems and Computing.