Task Force on Faculty & Shared Governance
Task Force Bulletin Board
Task Force Bulletin Board
- Last updated on October 4, 2004 by Sarah Holloman. Copyright 1999-2004 Rice University
ISSUES UNDER DISCUSSION
Electronic Voting
The assembled Faculty at present votes on important matters, including curriculum and calendar. One alternative to this system would involve voting by the entire faculty on important matters, either electronically or by paper ballots. Faculty would not need to attend the faculty meetings to make their voices heard--which would greatly relieve those with tight schedules, and in particular those with childcare responsibilities. Opportunity for discussion would be provided electronically, and perhaps in open meetings that could be taped and made available to those who could not attend.
POSTED FACULTY COMMENTS
(Posted according to date received)
Date: September 10, 2004 by James Thompson <thomp@stat.rice.edu>
On a related matter, it seems to me that we need to replace the "preferential ranking" system (currently used to tabulate votes for some faculty committees) by a system that includes run off elections. The present system encourages "old boyism," discourages new voices, and it is hardly transparent. Again, Rice is small enough to have run off elections between the top two candidates when no majority is achieved.
Date: September 14, 2004 by Moshe Vardi <vardi@cs.rice.edu>
I don't think absentee voting per se would solve our problems. A modification would be as follows: After a decision is taken by the faculty (or the senate), faculty members would be able to ask for mail (or electronic) voting by gathering enough signatures.
Date: September 17, 2004 by Meredith Skura <skura@rice.edu>
I think that having a faculty senate would moot this question but if we have to continue with a full faculty vote for everything then we should have electronic voting.
Date: September 22, 2004 by Gale Stokes <gstokes@rice.edu>
I do not think faculty who do not attend meetings should have a vote, electronic or paper. Implementing the senate reform would solve this issue since decisions would be made by the senate, which will be very much more informed than the average faculty member. Whereas I do not favor the Faculty Council plan, I do think that faculty members currently are offered adequate information about the issues that come before faculty meetings.
Date: September 29, 2004 by Ken Whitmire <whitmir@rice.edu>
I strongly favor electronic voting on most issues. The reality is that our lives as faculty are increasingly complex and attendance at faculty meetings will always be problematic in the future. It seems inappropriate to disenfranchise people who, for whatever reasons, are unable to attend a given meeting. Those who are busiest and least likely to be able to attend meetings are often those that we would particularly want to hear from, especially during the discussion. I am fully convinced that electronic voting will inevitably happen, the question is simply one of when. There is no way that 400 - 500 people can thoroughly discuss any complex issue in a 1.5 to 2 hour meeting regardless of how well-intentioned they may be. Heaven help us when there is more than one important issue to decide at a given meeting! Often we must simply put off important votes because there isn't time, or lots of folks have left. Or the votes are rushed into the last five minutes of the meeting. We are reduced often to making decisions based upon limited information and opinions supplied by other people during the meeting. Information (and perhaps more information and opinions) can be equally well, if not better, presented on line. These opinions could be presented in a more articulate and reasoned fashion than those sometimes emotional pleadings or tirades made during faculty meetings. And having more time to digest and reflect on this information would be a real plus.
Even if a faculty senate is created, there will be a need for faculty-wide balloting. Elections (whether there is a change to a senate or not) are a clear example of voting that would be tremendously improved by having on-line balloting. The on line ballot system would provide a ready means of distributing information about the candidates (there could be links to biographical information and statements by the candidates) so that it could be reviewed by voters during the actual voting process. A senate might also find it useful to having a voting (or perhaps polling) mechanism in place in order to gather information prior to a senate vote on important issues. Having an electronic system in place could facilitate this and make it doable in a reasonable time frame.
Additionally, our current system of governance makes it almost impossible to finalize important decisions in less than 1 - 2 years. This has created much frustration. How long does it take to approve fairly minor non-controversial changes to curriculum? Often these are not, could not possibly be, approved until well after the deadlines for getting the information into the General Announcements for the next academic year have long passed. Faculty meetings are held too infrequently (And more frequent faculty meetings would only be a vexation! No doubt attendance would be even worse if these happened more frequently.) to make things happen in a timely fashion. Electronic discussion and voting could help us greatly speed up the decision-making process if handled correctly. Carrying out repeat or run-off voting could be trivial and fast.
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