Editor's Note: This article is the third in a series of three articles by R. J. Multari on the subject of technology in advising. The first article, Technology in Higher Education Academic Advisement, was published in The Mentor on January 7, 2004. The second article, Integrating Technology into Advisement Services, was published in The Mentor on May 26, 2004.

The administration and management of advisement services, as well as the larger organization of an enrollment division, are quite reactive when considered in light of changing student needs, institutional administrative and educational practices, and societal expectations for higher education. Every college and university stakeholder wants efficiency, accountability, and assurance of a return on an investment as tuition payers, donors, and taxpayers (Gose, 1996). Academic advisement administrators—including senior academic officers, unit heads, mid- and entry-level professionals, and faculty in higher education administration—are responsible for meeting these demands.

Perhaps the most profound ramification of technology is its financial consequence on the management of advisement services. Several elements contribute to this impact, including

Desktop computing standards have risen rapidly as word processing, spreadsheet, graphical presentation, and various user programs have become more complex and memory starved. Software upgrades take advantage of such advances but also require the latest, largest, and fastest hardware components. Therefore, what is the appropriate desktop equipment for advisement personnel? By what standards should academic administrators, vice presidents/vice provosts, or deans determine what desktop equipment is necessary? How can advisement services stay current with such rapidly changing standards (Moneta, 1997)?

The development of a desktop upgrade and computing replacement program is one of the critical management decisions facing academic administrators. While computer costs are dropping, more and more members of the advisement and records staffs must be re-equipped to be productive. Entry-level counselors, academic advisers, records clerks, and, in many cases, student employees, need contemporary computers to process academic information and degree audits, prepare text documents, determine course articulations, respond and communicate via e-mail, or access the Internet.

Economic Implications

The cost implications are enormous. Assuming a four- to five-year replacement cycle for upgraded hardware, academic administrators must plan for a twenty percent replacement cost annually (Moneta, 1997). In a well-coordinated advisement and records services environment, these dollars may be recaptured from personnel savings resulting from reengineering activities that use technology in place of clerical support staff. In many cases, though, this goal of recapturing funds through personnel replacement may be difficult to achieve; however, academic administrators must accommodate the financing of technologies, as well as salary and benefit increases.

Software costs may place substantial demands on budgets within advisement services. Though common desktop applications such as word processors and spreadsheet programs may be dropping in price, specialty applications for advising appointment scheduling, student records databases, course articulation programs, and automated degree audit and student registration systems are extremely expensive and often require state-of-the-art equipment.

For academic administrators, attending to the costs of technology may prove to be the most difficult part of adjusting to the technological era. Response to each hardware and software need will carry a substantial price tag. With fewer new dollars on the horizon (and more equipment to be purchased), personnel and functions may be the primary victims of the technological requirements throughout the new millennium.

Professional Development

The competency gap between the computer-literate and the computer-phobic in advisement services grows wider with each new generation of machines and programs. Those who have resisted the accessibility of e-mail and the precision of spreadsheets—which was the case during the mid- to late 1990s within a Registrar's Office at a northern Ohio public university, where records clerks were referred to as mouse-illiterate or mouse-phobic—will be further challenged to consider applications of Web transactions and electronic distribution lists. Online calendar and scheduling programs, as well as graphical presentation software, may prove to be burdensome for faculty and advisement staff members who have a long history of using index cards and typewriters (Moneta, 1997). Therefore, professional development activities are more critical than ever before in the technological world. Powerful computing equipment serves little use to the underprepared, and academic administrators must provide ongoing training for faculty and advisement staff in order to maximize equipment value. However, competency requirements vary substantially for different levels of advisement services. For example, entry-level staff members are most likely to use standard office support programs, unique over-the-counter software applications, and various network applications such as e-mail and the Web.

Increasingly, new professionals are entering the workplace with far more advanced computer skills than their supervisors. Moreover, they may be frustrated by aged hardware, limited access to software (and limited budgets for purchases), and a potentially limited vision for technology in academic advisement and retention from those above them in the administrative hierarchy. On the other hand, the training needed for this new professionals group may be less technical than what is required for middle managers and senior advisement staff, who are less skilled in recent applications. Therefore, senior academic administrators must be familiar with the appropriate utility of technology in order to support their program's missions and goals as related to advisement and retention. Moneta (1997) outlines for academic administrators the necessity of staying current with

A professional development team consisting of senior advisement staff must include a computer consultant and at least one Web page author, who are likely to be the most current in the use of contemporary computer applications and Web design.

Management by E-mail

No single technological innovation has had more influence on management practices in academic advisement than e-mail. Electronic communication is burgeoning as campuses and homes increasingly become wired. Intracampus e-mail has exploded, as advisement and registration services staff members more regularly choose to type a note rather than risk encountering a busy signal or voice mail. E-mail is instant within the campus and generally provides relief to the frustrating phone tag that busy faculty and advisement staff often play in daily communication. Current e-mail packages provide nickname functions, group lists, and auto-response features, all of which have encouraged greater reliance and dependence on e-mail (Moneta, 1997). Meeting announcements, agendas, and minutes are now electronically distributed. E-mail has become, for many advisement services professionals, the communications vehicle of choice. E-mail, however, offers its own frustrations and challenges associated with frequency, direct access, miscommunication, personal-professional workplace issues, and confidentiality (Tabor, 1996).

The proliferation of electronic messages requires advisement services staff to keep e-mail boxes open throughout the work day—creating a source of work interruption, a reactionary work environment, and an absence of solid academic planning and thinking time. The managerial challenge for academic administrators is to establish a workplace environment in which e-mail is used to productively inform, communicate, and disseminate information (Moneta, 1997). Another by-product of the electronic communication revolution has been the establishment of direct access linkages to anyone who has an e-mail address. Students, parents, and other outside individuals have discovered the value of direct communication to the most senior academic administrator whose e-mail address can be identified. The traditional communication protocols and administrative practices, which expect the person closest to the problem to resolve it, are now threatened as customers and clients send messages to deans, vice provosts, vice presidents, and even campus presidents.

Due to the explosion of electronic communication, advisement services' operating principles and practices will likely evolve rapidly. Academic administrators can acknowledge receipt of e-mail complaints, requests for information, or suggestions and yet reassign the response to the appropriate advisement staff member. Given the high traffic volume associated with advisement services functions, academic advisement staff are well suited to develop such procedures.

The legal status of e-mail, once sent, is currently the subject of significant legal and ethical discussion. According to Moneta (1997), several trendsetting lawsuits seem to suggest the following:

Once received, electronic communication becomes a public document whose subsequent redistribution cannot be governed by the original author. Other case law has confirmed management's prerogative to monitor e-mail and to establish rules and limitations on its use. All of this suggests that the use of e-mail as a management and communications tool must be carefully considered and appropriately used. (p. 13)

Electronic communication, therefore, creates an explicit, documented trail that can compromise the confidentiality of correspondence intended only for the initial recipient.

Furthermore, electronic communication, coupled with the proliferation of Internet service providers, has blurred the distinction between work and home. Advisement services staff members, prone to long working hours, are exceptionally vulnerable to the need to stay connected throughout the day and night. Senior academic administrators set the organizational standards, and it is critical that exceptions for checking and responding to e-mail correspondence during off-hours be established and reinforced. Likewise, e-mail is a poor substitute for a phone conversation or even voice mail messages when the sharing of critical information or a timely response is required. Therefore, e-mail must supplement personal contact, not replace it.

Systems administrators in the enrollment planning division at the University at Buffalo suggest treating e-mail like a postcard: given the millions of messages transmitted over the Internet, it seems unlikely that anyone will intercept and read a particular enrollment services message. However, like a postcard passing through the local post office, an e-mail message could be read by anyone in the electronic loop who chooses to do so. As such, all e-mail should be treated as publicly accessible, and confidential information should rarely be transmitted this way (Moneta, 1997). E-mail use can be helpful, especially when used to communicate information. However, it can also be destructive, such as when supervisors use it for performance commentary. Good e-mail management practices are critical for advisement services administration.

Managing Technology in Advisement Services

In 1981, IBM announced the arrival of its new personal computer. Now, almost twenty-five years later, the personal computer is nearly as common as the telephone. As we progress through the twenty-first century, academic administrators will make critical decisions, guided by technological experts, and best guesses regarding the future. Some elements are certain: academic administrators must become adept at using all forms of electronic communication and transactional interaction to enhance academic service delivery, and every advisement services practitioner must become nimble in adjusting to the latest technological offerings. Take, for example, the Internet and the World Wide Web. Today, literally every information collection and transactional activity is a candidate for Web management.

From an administrative perspective, this evolution means that advisement services faculty and staff members must have Web expertise, and users must have access to powerful computers. Dollars must be reallocated to support these efforts, and the deployment of advisement and records service staff may be unique in an environment in which students connect with the necessary services from home.

Therefore, the key trait to be nurtured and developed during the first decade of the twenty-first century is adaptability. The pace of change will accelerate as higher education advisement services confront challenges and as new technologies evolve. According to Moneta (1997), the adaptive advisement services administrator will need to