When it comes to applying for admission, registering for classes, communicating with professors, conducting research and even purchasing books, the modern University of Delaware student has a vast network of support.

Today's student relies on UD's leading-edge technologies and a growing number of user-friendly programs and services to complete a wide array of educational and campus life tasks.

Those technologies and services are heavily used, according to Carl Jacobson, UD director of Management Information Services, who said the word that best describes the average Delaware student of the early 21st century is multi-tasking.

He or she is wired, or in many cases wireless, and constantly plugged in to friends, family, entertainment and class work through e-mail, cell phones (both with and without cameras and text messaging capabilities), instant messenger services and the Internet.

Reliance on UD's technology services starts early, often in the sophomore or junior year of high school when students begin the process of selecting a university.

UD has a vigorous Internet presence, and the home page receives about 1.5 million visitors per month. For the prospective student, the site offers a trove of information, including the online version of the award-winning viewbook.

The online viewbook includes important information about the campus through text, interactive presentations and a streaming video featuring a student-led guided tour of The Green, the Gore Hall classroom building, Trabant University Center and the Carpenter Sports Building recreation facility.

The online viewbook also provides links to information about financial aid and important events, such as Delaware Discovery Days, Decision Days and the DelaWorld new student orientation sessions.

To check it out, see [www.udel.edu/admissions/viewbook/visit/].

If high school students like what they see, there is also a link to the online application form. In 2004, UD received a record 22,166 applications, more than 47 percent of which were completed online.

Once students accept admission to UD, the real fun begins as they gain full access to the University network through a personal identification number and their own udel.edu e-mail address.

Before joining the UD network community, however, new students must demonstrate an understanding of and willingness to abide by a series of regulations designed to maintain order on the network. They do so by successfully completing the Electronic Community Citizenship Examination.

That test is being supplemented by the Code of the Web education campaign, which is designed to make sure students and UD employees understand that network rights come with responsibilities.

Among those responsibilities, people using the network must not misuse e-mail, must make sure their computers are protected from viruses and must honor the nation's copyright laws, particularly as they apply to digital music and movies. That last one relates to another issue, the necessity that users not download such digital files because they tie up expensive and valuable network bandwidth better left open and available to facilitate the institution's educational mission.

The Code of the Web has a Western theme, as the Internet is still something of a wild frontier, and is personified by the Fightin' Blue Hen mascot dressed up as Sheriff YoUDee. It is presented in a spirit of fun but the message is very serious, as these issues can have a profound impact on the network community.

Once on campus as a full-fledged member of the network community, students have access to lightning-fast Ethernet connections in their residence hall rooms and many classrooms. And, for those with wireless computers, UD has established O Zones at various locations across campus where such technology can be used.

Students find that their UD life is inextricably entwined with the campus network. They select residence hall rooms online, register for classes online, drop or add classes online, purchase books online and find out grades online. They can even report problems with machines in campus laundry facilities online.

The udel.edu e-mail address is their lifeline, providing quick and easy communication with professors and a means to receive and turn in assignments.

Online advising also is available. For example, the College of Human Services, Education and Public Policy maintains a full-service student support site that was honored in 2002 by the National Academic Advising Association as its outstanding electronic publication.

To complete assignments, students are provided a huge array of resources, in large part through the UD Library, which maintains a vast information database, subscribes to hundreds of electronic journals and provides at-home searching of its stacks through the DELCAT electronic card catalog system.

It is not unusual for a student to be working on a variety of tasks at once, sitting in front of a residence hall monitor researching a biology paper while at the same time checking e-mail, sending instant messages to friends across campus or back home and chatting on the cell phone.

The modern student is adept at using a variety of technological tools at the same time, Jacobson said. Students' expectations of the UD network are high, and the institution is constantly working to meet their needs.

For instance, to facilitate multitasking, the University has developed the new UD&Me portal that students can adopt as a highly personalized home page.

UD&Me pulls together a range of information, including financial and academic data, UD and international news, weather and campus events and classified advertisements. Students can even note what library books they have checked out.