In American higher education, rarely have computer scientists advanced to the top ranks of university leadership. At George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, Dr. Alan G. Merten, the school's newly inaugurated president, is getting the opportunity to demonstrate the leadership, administrative and academic skills he has acquired during his twenty-seven-year career as a computer scientist and teacher.

His stated goals include boosting the role of information technology in teaching, researching and administration. "I strongly believe that it is essential that we be on the leading edge in the use of information technologies in our teaching and learning activities, in our knowledge generation and knowledge application activities, and in the administration of our people, money, facilities and partnerships," said Merten during his presidential inauguration speech this past April.

"At George Mason University, we are uniquely positioned academically and located geographically to be world leaders in our use of information technologies," Merten further declared at inauguration.

Merten, who was formerly dean of the Cornell University graduate business school before taking the presidential appointment last summer, has in George Mason University the ideal school to test his skills and views on technology. George Mason was named this month as one of America's "100 most wired colleges," according to Yahoo! Internet Life magazine. Scoring highest among Virginia's public universities, the school ranked 68th overall in the survey that compared the use of technology in student services, academic use of the Internet and quality of computer hardware and wiring.

With a total enrollment of slightly more than 24,000 students, George Mason has in just twenty-five years as a public university become one of Virginia's largest schools. Only half of the student body attends George Mason on a full-time basis. The institution, which is considered a commuter school, has four separate campuses spread across the booming high technology region of northern Virginia. The concentration of technology firms in northern Virginia make the area the second largest high technology region in the nation, according to George Mason officials.