Stanford Report, October 18, 2006

Senate revisits campus computing woes, sets new agenda

BY MICHAEL PEÑA

The 39th Senate of the Academic Council met on Oct. 12, featuring more than a few fresh faces from the faculty this year and some seasoned members—with the senate's new chair, mechanical engineering Professor Sheri Sheppard, welcoming her colleagues, about half of whom are relatively new.

Sheppard noted that 27 of the senate's 55 members have served for a year or less—including Andrew Fire, winner of this year's Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology. The 16 women elected to the senate, or 29 percent, is higher than the percentage of women in the wider Academic Council, she noted, adding that the full council includes about 1,400 faculty members, 22 percent of whom are women.

"And the 55 of us [in the senate] represent 36 different departments across the university. And there are 60 total departments, so we don't have them all covered, but there really is good coverage of a lot of the university," Sheppard said.

Much of the meeting was devoted to the annual report of the Committee on Academic Computing and Information Systems (C-ACIS), presented by last year's committee chair, electrical engineering Professor Abbas El Gamal. The presentation sparked lengthy discussion about ongoing problems with upgraded software systems for students, human resources and business financials. The report also encompassed research computing and campuswide information technology issues, with Oracle Financials quickly coming to the forefront.

"As a multibillion-dollar-a-year institution, Stanford should have a strategic plan for information technology that is in line with the overall mission and goals of the university," El Gamal said. Although his committee established that as a guiding principle for future discussions, he said coming up with that plan will be complicated because key aspects such as its scope and decision-making structure are undefined.

"I do hope that in the future, there will be some involvement of the people who actually have to use the systems," said Linda Cork, comparative medicine. "Since I have been here, we have developed three different sets of software related just to our one operation. And all of those then have to integrate with the others. And I have to tell you, no one has ever come to us and asked us what was needed to fit with our system."

El Gamal acknowledged that improving such communication should be part of any strategic plan, but that C-ACIS as currently chartered is not fit to spearhead the plan's development. An ensuing discussion about who should lead that effort prompted comments from Philip Pizzo, dean of the School of Medicine; Jeff Koseff, civil and environmental engineering; Bruce Wooley, electrical engineering; Provost John Etchemendy; and Randy Livingston, vice president for business affairs and chief financial officer.

Computer science Professor Alex Aiken, current chair of C-ACIS, said a strategic plan could be developed by the committee if the task isn't taken up by anyone else—such as a new vice provost. The idea of that new post also was brought up by Russell Fernald, biological sciences, but Etchemendy cautioned against creating new positions or committees and suggested that a more effective way to address the problem would be by clarifying the current committee's mission, tapping faculty expertise and increasing support from academic computing staff.

Other computing issues were raised during the discussion, such as how to improve research administration software and the prospect of a new data center that would serve both the university and the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. To that end, President John Hennessy said that administrative computing and research computing are distinct issues and should not be addressed by one person.

"I believe it is very difficult to find one person that can do those two tasks," Hennessy said. "Part of the reason we got in trouble with Oracle was that some of the people became too focused on the big vision [of a strategic plan] and not enough on delivering the administrative system that will really work."

Master's degree in African studies approved

In other business, the senate unanimously authorized the Master of Arts degree program in African studies upon the recommendation of the Committee on Graduate Studies. The Interdisciplinary Program in African Studies first brought the proposal to the committee last May.

The advanced-degree program is expected to start in September 2007 with five to six students for an initial period of five years. Although African studies at Stanford dates back to the 1960s, the university has to date not granted a degree in that field. Meanwhile, there has been an "extraordinary blossoming of interest" among undergraduates and faculty over the past five years, said history Professor Richard Roberts, the program's director.

As the meeting wound down, Sheppard expressed her hope that this year's senate will continue to address topics that inspire a higher level of attendance and involvement than in years past. She laid out three major areas that the current senate's steering committee decided should be top priorities: interdisciplinary research, graduate education and undergraduate education. (See story on p. xx.)

"We'd like to make sure that we're talking about things that are really important to all of you and all of the faculty you work with," Sheppard said. Soon after, she asked senators to break into small groups and each come up with several topics that should be addressed as the year progresses.

The groups expressed interest in hearing more on a wide range of issues, from the "nuts and bolts of interdisciplinary research and appointments" to what leadership role Stanford is taking in regard to early admission. Groups also asked for a review of the current tenure system, presentations on the economic diversity of the undergraduate body and ongoing updates on campus growth, academic computing and the recently announced $4.3 billion fundraising campaign, The Stanford Challenge.