Students use Web to avoid calling, visiting professors

Every class syllabus contains a professor’s e-mail address, granting students easy – and quick – communication with their professors.

“I think it’s a good form of communication,” said Elizabeth Brenda, freshman integrated health studies major. “You don’t have to see them one-on-one or call them on the phone.”

A recent study by the Pew Internet and American Life Project found that 96 percent of workers use e-mail.

And for associate English professor Sara Newman, e-mail is the preferred way to communicate with students.

“I hate the phone,” she said. “There is nothing you can do about people who don’t respond.”

But psychology professor E. Thomas Dowd said the convenience of e-mail makes it “too easy to ask questions” before referring to the syllabus.

The Pew study found that 17 percent of workers felt e-mail increased their workload while 6 percent said the e-mail reduced the time they worked.

Journalism professor Candace Bowen said her e-mail is always open.

“I easily get 200 e-mails a day,” she said. “Keeping up with that is a challenge.”

Computer technology professor Carolyn Carvalho said in an e-mail that when people send many e-mails, “it becomes a chore to sift through too many messages.”

Some students, however, expect professors to respond quickly.

“I would expect them (professors) to respond pretty quickly,” said junior integrated health major Scott Ingersoll. “(You) have to know quick or go to class clueless.”

Dowd said other professors have had issues with students wanting an immediate response.

Just “because they are up at 3 a.m., it doesn’t mean I am,” he said.

Even so, Newman said e-mail “opens avenues for communication” by allowing her to send student documents and papers, among other things.

Overall, students and professors both said it is important to be connected via e-mail.

“I could not go without e-mail for either of my jobs to be done well,” Carvalho said.

“It’s really important,” freshman architecture major Ian Picchetti said. “You get updates on whether or not you have class, or something is due. Automatically (you are) connected to information.”

Contact news correspondent Kelly Petryszyn at [email protected].