From:  Senator Robert Boikess
  Rutgers College

Subject: Information and Directories

Date:  March 12, 2004
 

 The purpose of this communication to you is to ask that you charge an appropriate committee of the University Senate with the consideration and solution of a serious problem for all members of the university: the inadequate access and availability of information about the members of our community.

 Many of us recognize the power of computers to improve productivity by providing easy access to necessary information. Many of us also recognize that computers have certain limitations.  So utmost caution must be exercised in seeking totally to replace nonelectronic methods of providing information. Recent changes in the Rutgers Faculty/Staff Directory and the Rutgers web site dramatically illustrate what can happen when changes in traditional methods of providing information are implemented recklessly and without adequate consultation.

 The 2002 Rutgers Faculty/Staff Directory has 257 pages of information about the university community and a useful 30-page Yellow Book supplement. It contains a great deal of very useful, easily accessible information that is no longer available, easily or at all. For example, the extremely useful 47 pages of departmental listings are gone, as are the listings of faculty/staff retirees. Those who wish to make their home addresses and telephone numbers available to the university community can no longer do so. Perhaps some of this information is now on the web site; but I can’t find it.

  The 2003-2004 Faculty/Staff Telephone Directory has 116 pages of information. It provides the telephone number, fax number (when available), and unit affiliation of those listed. In addition, the search engine of the Rutgers web site will allow one to find (if one uses the right browser) the postal address, email address, and campus location of faculty and staff. It also lists a  “title” for faculty and staff. For example, all faculty above the rank of Associate Professor are listed as “Professor,” not for example as BOG Professor or Named Professor, when appropriate. Of course some faculty also have administrative appointments, but only one listing can be found. So it can happen that a BOG Professor is listed as Staff with the title of Director; or the Director of an important Bureau may be listed simply as Faculty and Professor.

 These are just some examples of the deterioration of our systems of information. I am confident that a thorough study of this problem by a Senate committee will find many more such examples. I have brought this matter to the attention of high-ranking administrators several times and have yet to get a substantive response. No doubt, if the administrator responsible for these changes chooses to respond we will be told that there is some fine-tuning that needs to be done. One might wonder why adequate consultation and the fine-tuning weren’t done first, before the old directory was chucked out and many faculty and staff were inconvenienced.

 Accordingly, I am hereby requesting that a Senate committee be assigned fully to investigate this matter, consult as widely as feasible about the needs of the community, and develop a set of recommendations for presentation to the Senate for its endorsement and to the administration for implementation.

 Thank you for your consideration of this matter.