Approximately 90 percent of its students come from families that qualify for financial aid, and many students hail from small rural towns and communities with poor school districts. Their ability to access computers and the Internet has been made possible by financing from very generous sources.

Great Expectations

Donations by Alan H. Voorhees, the great nephew of the school's first benefactor, private foundations and federal grants have been critical to making computers and the Internet widely available to students and faculty. The Lilly Foundation is picking up the tab for training the institution's faculty in the use of computers for teaching in all disciplines. And Dawson expects that any investments not covered by donations will be paid for by the administrative savings expected from having computerized the school's administrative operations.

Merten said he is optimistic that American higher education will see more benefits coming from information technology advances. As one of the few computer scientists in the nation running a major university, Merten is well-positioned to guide research he sees as necessary to improving information technology.

George Mason University benefits from a close relationship it enjoys with the booming high technology community in northern Virginia and Maryland. GMU faculty members are currently pursuing technology research that is expected to benefit institutions of higher education, according to Merten.

Merten said part of his mission is to support research that will result in making instructional software more cost-effective and in helping other institutions take advantage of information technology for their administrative operations.

"If we can make a difference in those areas," said Merten, "we'll be doing well."