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February 5, 2001

Senate looks at IT issues
during January meeting

By Michael Terrazas mterraz@emory.edu

Provost Rebecca Chopp opened the University Senate’s Jan. 23 meeting in the Woodruff Library’s Jones Room by updating members on the upcoming Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) accreditation review. She said there were two components to the SACS review: a compliance review that would be done mostly by Emory staff and led by Harriet King; and a self-study that will determine how well the University can plan around a particular theme. “Research at Emory” will be that theme, Chopp said, and a group similar to the Teaching Commission will be selected to oversee planning.

President Bill Chace said the University surpassed its United Way campaign goal (see story, page 1), raising more than $390,000 for the 2000 campaign. Emory Clinic did especially well, he said, raising 309 percent of its stated goal.

Chace announced that new Vice President and Dean of Campus Life John Ford has begun his tenure, and he hoped Senate members would welcome Ford to the community. Finally, Chace said the administration is determining the cost of expanding the University’s workplace giving program, and he hoped the financial study would be completed this spring.

Jennifer Fabrick, director of Campus Planning for Facilities Management, gave a presentation on Emory’s many capital projects, listing all those that have recently been completed, are now in construction or will soon break ground. She also noted that Emory’s Open Space projects recently received national attention when the University was featured in a U.S. News & World Report article on pedestrian campuses.

Emory College Dean Steve Sanderson announced the reorganization of the Council on Information Resources and Technology (CIRT). He said CIRT will function more as a board in the future, dividing itself into several task forces to handle more focused duties such as library policy, web policy, Internet 2 matters, etc.

In a related matter, law school Dean Woody Hunter updated the Senate on the Information Technology Architecture Committee (ITAC), which has the responsibility of formulating a University “master plan” for IT matters. Hunter said the goal is develop a network that is accessible “anywhere, anytime” by the Emory community, but the committee has the difficult task of negotiating the many IT boundaries that arise in decentralized organization like Emory.

Hunter said ITAC’s goal is develop the central architecture while maintaining as much decentralization as possible. He also said budget processes must be made “nimble” since technological advances often far outpace the mechanisms for buying new systems and equipment.

Employee Council President Susan Cook-Prince gave the final Senate presentation of her tenure, saying the council will hold another information fair, similar to the one that was so successful last fall, on Feb. 13 from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Dobbs Center.

The next University Senate meeting will be Feb. 27 at 3:15 p.m. in the Jones Room of Woodruff Library.

If you have a question or concern for University Senate, send an e-mail to President Claire Sterk at csterk@sph.emory.edu.

 

Back to Emory Report Feb. 5, 2001