Students University-wide will soon have an opportunity to easily communicate by computer with Commonwealth Campus area governments, the Council of Commonwealth Student Governments and the administration.

Ben Stevenson, CCSG coordinator, said University students will soon be able to log on to the Penn State mainframe and get information about happenings throughout the Commonwealth Educational System. Information would include the history and purpose of CCSG, CES issues and an opportunity to let opinions be known.

Students can offer feedback on issues that are current and involve students, Stevenson said, adding that this will allow CCSG leaders to better represent students.

Administrators will also be able to find out about student opinions on issues such as a student activity fee and student government restructuring.

Robert Dunham, senior vice president and dean of CES, said he is excited about the new system and cannot wait until it is working.

"I would encourage all students to use it. I'll use it," Dunham said, adding that other administrators would use the service.

The service includes a listing of all summer classes at Commonwealth Campuses, which can be very useful to students who want to take classes at home during the summer, Dunham said.

CCSG vice coordinator Brian Boreman said the mainframe is the perfect outlet for any student organization to inform students, but is especially helpful to CCSG "because of how diverse in location we are." The project is part of CCSG's effort to become known throughout the University, he said.

About 5,000 University students have instructional accounts giving them access to the mainframe, according to statistics from the Center for Academic Computing. Other accounts grant access to the system, but figures for these are unavailable.

Other than informing students, the new system will also save CCSG money. Rick Elyar, E-mail resource manager for CCSG, said the mainframe system is free for CCSG use and saves money on photocopies and phone bills to the Commonwealth Campuses.

Stevenson said he first plans to educate the area government student leaders at the Commonwealth Campuses. Other students are encouraged to use the service, but there is no promotion underway, he said.

Most students with an account like to play around with the mainframe and this is probably how they would find out about it for now, Stevenson said.

Other Big Ten schools already have a similar system in place. In fact, Boreman said he and Stevenson got the idea from a meeting of the Association of Big Ten Students last semester.

Stevenson said he hopes to get some input from other Big Ten schools who are able to log on to the mainframe.