POO
Fy Y
b
i K .

Who
needs
people
when
you
have a
com-
puter?

BY TARA H. ARDEN-SMITH
HARVARD U.
PN oios }Y: EDWARD MARAVlI1A,
CALIORNIA STA]E U., CHICo
FLINT WAINESS IS A BUSY GUY.
As president of the student
assembly, the senior represents
the U. of Michigan's 40,000 stu-
dents before university adminis-
trators and the world.
To do his job well, Wainess needs to
spend a lot of time talking to a lot of
people: campus leaders, random con-
stituents, professional consultants
working with the assembly on long-
term projects. Wainess estimates he
interacts with between 60 and 80 peo-
ple a day.
He couldn't do it without the
Internet.
Open 24 hours
Like many students on college campuses across
the cotntry,"aitess hss found a new way to deal
with the demands of his life. He sits before a
screen, typinsg antalking. He messtges assembly
members about meetings and activist students
about issues. From thousands of miles away, he
arranged for a Colorado consulting firm to study
the university and devise a viable universal health-
care plan for students.
Technically, or rather technologically, Wainess
works even while he's sleeping - before he saws
logs, he logs on and dashes off mail to university
president James J. Duderstadt.
"He checks his e-mail every morning at 6 a.m.
before lie goes jogging, so if I need something from
him, I've already dealt with him by the time I get
up," Wainess says. "I could have an appointment
with him, face to face, in his office, once a month,
or I could do this."
Nowadays on campus, those who aren't con-
nected are obsolete. Heather Lowman, who grad-
uated from Michigan way back in '93, says class-
es after hers get a completely different college
experience.
"In just one or two years, suddenly there was a
whole different generation of students dealing with

October 1995 " U. Magazime 25