President Neil L. Rudenstine has no e-mail address and has no plan of getting one in the near future, according to University spokesperson Jonathan B. New.

But after this year, he may be the only person on campus without one, thanks to an ambitious project undertaken by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) to bring state-of-the-art computer technology to students and their professors.

Dubbed the Harvard High-Speed Data Network (HSDN), the project will enable students and faculty, for the price of a pair of in-line roller skates, to communicate with students from Thayer to Australia--without any messy modem cables or huge phone bills.

With the network connection itself free of charge, users are ready to connect to the network with a computer device, called the Ethernet card, through the data phone jacks already present in their rooms.

Once on the network, which resembles a complex highway, students can be easily hooked up to the Internet, an international computer network used by some 15 million people every day.

From Internet, student users can read and send electronic mail ("e-mail") almost anywhere, retrieve free software programs from a number of software libraries spread around the globe, and tap into any number of resources provided by various institutions.

Users will also have access to local Harvard information services, such as HOLLIS, the on-line library catalogue, and VINE, a database offering such campus information as daily dining hall menus and campus calendars.

And for the first time, students will be able to run a number of popular software packages from file servers housed in the basement of the Sci- ence Center, without having to buy the softwarethemselves.

What will probably be the most profound ofHSDN's features, however, is the possibility ofsetting up a new type of communication channelbetween students and the teaching staff.

"With a University-wide network," says WilliamH. Bossert '59, Arnold professor of science andmaster of Lowell House, "the interaction betweenthe faculty and the students will be muchimproved."

Such improvements will take the form ofspeedier feedback from instructors to students,because of HSDN's capacity for 24-hour access toe-mail messages.

In addition, says H.T. Kung, McKay professor ofelectrical engineering and computer science,networks often make it easier "for people tocollaborate on their research works."

"Information is the bottom line," says Kung."That's the same reason why Vice-President [Al]Gore talks about a national data superhighway."

University officials say that the completion ofthe project will place Harvard at the very top ofthe list of universities which have similar,comprehensive campus-wide networks.

"I don't know of any major universities thathave Ethernet connections to every room," saysKung, a well-known expert in computer systemdesign. "We are doing really well."

Gary R. Holmes, network manager at the Officefor Information Technology (OIT), agrees. "Thisreally puts us on the forefront of academicinstitutions," says Holmes. "It is a great stepforward for the University."