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This paper raises four research questions about the relationships between expectations about the faculty use of e‐mail and the level of e‐mail usage among faculty. The study uses a survey design to test expectations about technology on several attitude measures. We report that positive expectations about the functionality of technology are related to higher incidence of e‐mail use. Furthermore, the results suggest higher existing levels of computer use in general, and that positive anticipation of future use is also related to higher levels of e‐mail use in particular. These findings are then used to develop profiles of users and non‐users. The results indicate that younger faculty with greater exposure to computers tend to be more frequent users of e‐mail than older faculty whose customary communication styles do not include the use of e‐mail. Finally it is suggested that expectations about the “promise of technology” are related to the actual use of technology.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSThis thesis idea came to me when I was at the dinner table with Jane and Richard Eskew, my American parents. We were talking about the drug problems in the U.S and my encounter with a drug dealer in Puerto Rico when Jane asked me, "Is drug a serious social problem in China too? What did the Chinese government do to prevent it?" I have started my research since then, and I'm answering those questions with this thesis today, more than a year after they were raised by the Eskew's. I would like to thank my American parents for giving me the inspiration and also their care for me in every possible way. They made my life in the U.S. truly at home.I would be a master student forever and never be able to graduate if it were not for the following professors, who are great teachers with great wisdom, knowledge, and They pointed me to all the possible resources and solved a lot of my statistic problems.

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