UpDate - Vol. 13, No. 23, Page 1
March 10, 1994
Faculty member's proposal receives quick v-mail reply

     Gerald Culley of languages and literatures made a well thought out
response to an inquiry from the special projects division of Computing and
Network Services (CNS), and, as a result, his department will soon be an
active participant in the University's new expanding voice mail network, or
v-mail.
     In the fall, Lynda Ruggerio, coordinator in CNS, sent a detailed,
informational document on telephone call management to administrative
officers, deans, chairpersons and academic directors.  Interested
departments were asked to arrange a meeting with the voice processing team,
after giving thought to the applications in the document for their
particular units.
     Culley, an associate professor of classics who also serves as academic
director of the Foreign Languages Media Center, said his chairperson sent
the management document to him for review.
     Based on the document, Culley said he decided the new v-mail features
would be extremely beneficial for both the department's faculty and
administrative staff.
     After meeting with his department chairperson, office coordinator,
senior secretary and student placement and foreign student coordinator,
Culley reviewed their needs and suggestions.
     He decided call management would be beneficial in handling routine
calls requesting general information about language requirements, inquiries
related to the overseas language program and calls for procedural
information related to dropping and adding courses in the entry-level
languages category.
     Culley and the planning team thought the automated attendant
capabilities of the voice mail system had the potential to dramatically
relieve office staff from handing scores of routine calls that come into
the office daily.
     The second feature of voice mail, giving each faculty member a mailbox
capable of receiving messages, also was important. This feature, Culley
said, would relieve administrative staff from receiving calls and taking
messages for individual faculty members when they were away from their
offices.
     Culley wrote a proposal and sent the information to the attention of
Ruggerio, who said she was impressed with the quality and thoroughness of
the document.
     "Jerry put together a proposal describing his department's voice mail
requirements," Ruggerio said. "Although we are not yet ready to offer
advanced voice mail services, the preliminary work he has done in
developing the automated attendant application for the department insures
that his application will be among the first implemented."
     Currently, Culley is working with Rebecca Riston, voice mail
coordinator, to have the message-receiving capabilities of the voice mail
system installed in the Department of Languages and Literatures.
     Ruggerio added that the promptness of Culley's response and the
thoroughness of his suggested design showed that he followed the call
management document's suggestions and read the material thoroughly.
     The amount of time devoted to the effort, Culley said, was
approximately half a day, including the organizational department staff
session and preparation of the document. He added that it was time
well-spent.
     "I think implementation of the basic level of voice mail for faculty
and staff will make the receipt of messages more timely and reliable,"
Culley said. "I think the single largest advantage is being able to relieve
what is an almost intolerable burden on support staff, who must spend time
answering the same questions and are unable to get anything else
accomplished."
                                             -Ed Okonowicz