Editor's Note: Last July, Martyn J. Miller, head of The University of Georgia American Language Program, which is administered by the Georgia Center, was awarded a cost-shared grant by the Overseas Educational Advisors -- Europe (OSEAS -- Europe) and NAFSA: Association of International Educators, Region VII for participation in the Fifth Annual Conference of OSEAS -- Europe, in Athens, Greece. Miller's presentation focused on how his office and those in international programming around the world are relying more and more on e-mail and the Internet -- for initial contacts with students, for correspondence with fellow educators, for fact-finding study, and so on. Presented below is Miller's address, with an update here and there. If you'd like to comment, please contact Miller as noted. Though I have been an avid user and supporter of electronic mail since I stumbled upon it by accident five years ago, doing a survey and looking at other surveys conducted on e-mail have reinforced my convictions that e-mail has become an indispensable tool for international educators, if not for all educators. We can now access mail and other information virtually instantaneously, especially as compared to the old methods of "snail mail" and even FAX machines. Even better, one might say, is the fact that I gathered a great deal of information at basically no cost to myself or the providers of the information.
Of the 57 respondents to Bustle's survey, 36 indicated that they were using IBM or IBM-compatible machines using DOS operating systems, while 19 identified Mac as their primary environment. Of those using DOS systems, 28 indicated that they operated under or with Windows. In addition, 22 indicated that they were connected to a mainframe on the campus. This in itself is interesting in that it appears that many computer centers on campuses in the U.S. are moving away from mainframe use and are adopting the practice of desktop personal computers or local access networks in relatively limited areas, such as one office or one building. One obvious reason for this is financial. It seems more logical for some university administrations to disseminate the cost of computing needs by reducing mainframe usage, which entails university-wide spending, and requiring individual departments to cover the cost of individual computing networks.
Another question Bustle posed was about the use of databases in offices. Apparently database software is becoming more user-friendly, for 38 responded that they use stand-alone databases in their offices, while only eight indicated that they do not do so. The number of those who use databases on university mainframes is 23. Twenty-five indicated that they use software in the DOS environment, 10 under Windows, and at least 12 use Mac programs.
An important part of the daily work in international student offices in the U.S. is the constant need to fill in so many forms required by the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) and various other government agencies. Many software companies are creating database and form-filler programs to facilitate this process. However, not many people seem to have taken advantage of this. In responding to Bustle's question about how the Form I-20, which is a form required from all students applying for nonimmigrant student visas in the U.S., is filled out in offices, only one person indicated that information is imported from a mainframe to complete the forms, presumably on computer, six use a database program, nine indicated that they were using filler-form programs, and 33 said they were still using typewriters. Only four, including my office at UGA, indicated they use laser printers for this form. Twelve said they were still using impact printers.
Another function of the international student office is, of course, to receive and to respond to incoming mail from the potential international students. While most of this is still done by "snail mail," it is becoming more popular to use e-mail if the international student has access. In my department, for example, we now have students enrolled who requested information from me by e-mail. As a matter of fact, one student's question to me was whether or not he would be able to establish an account at The University of Georgia once he arrived. I told him we could arrange it, and when he first met me during our orientation for this quarter, he reminded me that he was the student with whom I had communicated by e-mail and asked me to set up his account immediately. It took a couple of days, but he now has an account and seems to be quite satisfied.
I recently conducted a short survey on the INTER-L and asked how many people are currently using e-mail in their offices. One person said that she now receives approximately 35 messages a day from potential applicants requesting information about her university. Another respondent writes, "Our office has expanded the use of e-mail considerably in the past year. We have found e-mail to be a much more reliable form of com-munication with our students, as most have e-mail as a necessary part of their program of study.... For our office, dealing with approximately 1,800 students makes it very difficult, and expensive, to rely on mailings (postal) to get the information out to students."
Another writes, "We print my e-mail address in all our promotional materials now -- which has led to a slight increase in the number of messages I get. I really enjoy getting inquiries this way, because I can start to establish a relationship with the student -- which I hope will help him/her decide that [we] would be a great place to go to school! I send them information and answer their questions in some detail...." The idea of adding one's e-mail address to all forms of communication, including business letters, is itself a clear indication that e-mail is becoming as prevalent now as telephones and FAX machines have been.
More recent than my survey is one conducted by John Pearson of Stanford University, and his results show that the use of e-mail is quite widespread, in a variety of means. Of his 80 respondents, 51 wrote that they use e-mail to advise their students at least occasionally. Of those, 38 said that they use individual e-mail accounts, four wrote that they use office accounts (I would imagine this would be similar to local access networks within an office), and nine indicated that they use both individual and office accounts. Moreover, 30 of the respondents said that their offices maintain a distribution list for discussions with students and/or office staff.
As one graduate admissions officer writes, "We do not accept applications by e-mail or FAX. We've had an average of a dozen cases of fraud a year [out of some 4,500 applications] and we don't consider anything received via FAX or e-mail official." Another does hope that one day this will be possible: "We are a long way from there, but I can't wait for the day that an applicant can send his/her application over Internet directly into our admissions system without human intervention." Others are also looking for innovative approaches to being able to put the application process completely on-line, including transferring academic and financial aid transcripts.
The use of the Gopher and the World Wide Web is also becoming more popular. Of the respondents to my survey, eight indicated they have use of Gopher and allow international students access to this. A student can, for example, connect to the Gopher at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, and get a large amount of information needed to apply for admission. While the application is not yet on-line in this institution, most of the normal questions, dealing with such things as application deadlines and documentation needed for a complete application, can be retrieved, as can information about the school's screening processes.
Pearson also looked at the use of the Gopher and the Web in international offices, and his results indicate that the Gopher and the Web are both more widespread than I had found in my survey. According to Pearson's results, of the 80 respondents to the survey, 72 indicated that they have access to the Gopher, while 52 reported that they have access also to the Web. Of those, 33 indicated that they have their own Gophers or are listed on their universities' Gophers, and 13 stated that they have their own Web pages or are listed on their universities' pages. An additional seven wrote that they were currently developing a Gopher or Web page for their offices.
Finally, one more service provided to international students on campuses throughout the U.S. is an on-line newsletter. Many schools have for a long time distributed hard-copy newsletters to all their international students, with such information as social events, academic activities, employment information, and reminders of immigration deadlines. Benefits of on-line newsletters are ease of distribution and the speed with which students can receive information, making such matters as application and immigration deadlines easier to contend with.
As one international student at the UNC-Chapel Hill writes to Bustle, who recently placed a newsletter on-line, "I just got my first issue of uncintl and I think it is a superb write-up of utmost importance to all international scholars and students. The creation of uncintl is a very timely idea...."
To quote one of the respondents of my survey, "As this means of communication is used more, I expect that our new scholars will feel much more secure and better prepared for visits which can be stressful.... When they finally arrive for the orientation, they seem like old friends." There are so many different technical environments available to the user; the opportunities are endless. It is incumbent upon all of us to find out how to gain access to the technology so that we can all do our jobs better and more efficiently, in short, to serve our students and our clients in the most effective way.
The greatest benefit to me of e-mail and the other electronic technologies is the ease of networking that this has created. I may know a little about the Gopher and the Web, for example, but I do not, by any means, have all of the answers. What I have, and what everyone else on e-mail has, is the ability to find out almost immediately who does have the answers. And it is this aspect of networking that makes the technology so important, especially, I would suggest, to the less-experienced adviser.
E-mail, Gopher, and the Web -- all three of these have made our lives much easier and more productive, and we should all find ways to get access to them if we don't have it now or to use them more efficiently and more effectively if we do.