Stanford Report, February 22, 2006

New online elections for Academic Council

BY RAY DELGADO

The online revolution has come to the Academic Council. Beginning this week, council members will be able to cast their ballots for Faculty Senate and Advisory Board candidates from their computers on a secure webpage, displacing the paper ballot and interdepartmental mail system that has been used for years.

Eligible voters will receive notification of the elections via e-mail this week, along with details about which dates the elections will be accessible for voting and a link for submitting votes, Academic Secretary Ted Harris said. Voters will be required to sign in with their SUNet ID to cast ballots and can do so from any web-enabled computer.

Faculty who vote will find that the online ballots are very similar to the paper ones they used to receive through interdepartmental mail, Harris said. The system is easy to use and intuitive, he said, and should help increase voter participation. Participation has ranged from 28 to 42 percent in the past, he added. Any questions about the new system can be directed to the Academic Secretary's Office.

"We were encouraged by the faculty 'quality of life' survey last year that many of them did online," Harris said. "It's been difficult to get a majority of faculty to vote. The old paper ballots have been taxing for the staff as well."

Funding for the new system was approved by the Provost's Office. Diane Lopez, a senior developer in the Office of the Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education, led the effort to design the system in consultation with staff from the Academic Secretary's Office. Once ballot entries are complete, the data will be downloaded and entered into a proportional system for ballot processing.

Voting will be split into various rounds for different elections for the Faculty Senate and the Advisory Board of the Academic Council. The results will be ready by the end of Spring Quarter, Harris said.