President emeritus registers a plea for better Faculty Senate attendence

In his farewell remarks as chair of the Faculty Senate last spring, Professor Hank Greely worried out loud about the poor attendance record of too many senate members -- 15 of the 55 elected representatives attended half or fewer of the meetings last year, and four made it to four or fewer of the 14 meetings. Average attendance was under two-thirds. Greely cited the disappearance entirely of the senate at the University of California-Berkeley because of flagging attendance.

I write to underline the importance of Greely's plea that no one accept election to the senate unless he or she expects to be able to attend at least two-thirds of its meetings. Many Stanford faculty take the senate for granted and are only likely to pay attention to its performance if there is a real campus crisis, such as that which helped give rise to the senate's creation in the late 1960s. And very few realize what a rare advantage Stanford faculty have in being able to hold the president and the provost accountable during their regular reports to the senate; either can be questioned by senate members about anything under the sun.

The Faculty Senate has great potential, but this will only be realized if the faculty takes more interest in it and participation improves. Why grumble about the administration in private when there is a mechanism readily at hand by which to hold administrators accountable.

RICHARD W. LYMAN

President Emeritus