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Lucy Hodges's article (Multimedia, THES, January 13) on the use of e-mail by the president of Ohio University implies that his widespread use of this form of technology is both novel and unique among university chief executives.

When I joined the University of Essex as vice chancellor in July 1992 I ensured that I had an email address from day one; that address (rjohn@essex.ac.uk) is on all of my stationery, and is in the university email directory (both the hard copy and that on our World-Wide-Web ³ÉÈËVRÊÓƵ Page). Our new registrar and secretary, who arrrived a month later, was similarly pro email, and very soon a great deal of correspondence among ourselves, our PAs and secretaries, and the pro vice chancellors flowed through the network; most of the administrative staff have now joined us.

We save time and paper by communicating this way -- while ensuring that hard copies are made of important material and messages archived.

Routine requests -- such as those for permission to be out of the country during term time -- are now handled directly between applicant and v-c without the intermediate steps of secretarial time and paper.

I, like other senior staff, am also on the network at home, which makes communication without contact even easier. I am sure that I fit Lucy Hodges's description of Dr Glidden, for I certainly spend "a chunk of every day hunched over" one of my computers. I know of no other v-c who publishes an email address outside the institution, and I have not yet convinced CVCP to add such addresses to their directory of v-cs. If the CVCP were to go on the network (like the HEFCE has already done) not only would communication be much easier but a great deal of paper could be saved. We could select from the ³ÉÈËVRÊÓƵ Page that which we wished to download, and could get messages to each other quickly and efficiently. Some fear that publicly announcing one's email address will be to invite a deluge, much of it of junk mail. That has not been my experience. People use it responsibly to make contact with me, and I use it to get messages quickly to people.

For my research, email is a godsend. I rarely meet the people I collaborate with but we continually exchange ideas, data, part-interpreted analyses, and draft manuscripts. Let us hope The THES's decision to go on the Internet will presage a more modern attitude to communication among my peers.

RON JOHNSTON Vice chancellor Essex University