2008 Woodie Awards
For the Univ. Senate, a 21st century upgrade
Jad Sleiman
Issue date: 5/8/08 Section: News
Here's task number one for the University Senate's new executive secretary: Bring the esteemed body into the 21st century.
Despite the advent of electricity, the telephone and the personal computer, the university's main decision-making body still operates on a mostly dead-tree model, using paper to vote, circulate briefs and accomplish many other tasks that could otherwise be completed electronically.
The senate's newly selected executive secretary and director, Banureka Montfort, plans on speeding up university politics by incorporating electronic technologies into the paperwork-laden bureaucracy.
Montfort has worked for the university before as a coordinator with the physics department, which she helped bring into the digital age by setting up electronic databases and intranets that replaced the department's mountains of tedious paper files and forms.
Her new position with the senate makes her a general guide to the members, charged with making sure senate business runs smoothly. She's replacing Mary Giles, a senate fixture of almost a decade who moved recently to Massachusetts to take a job with the Brigham and Women's Hospital.
"As a whole the senate functions great," Montfort said. "I think that some of the administrative processes could be streamlined."
For instance, the senate still votes by holding up paper cards. Montford said she would look at replacing that system with the same sort of electronic "clickers" students use to answer questions in physics classes.
"Right now, they hold up cards and it's kind of difficult in a room to count all those cards when you have 200 going up," she said.
Montfort also hopes to help facilitate easier communication between senate committees, who often exchange confidential information, by establishing a secure intranet for senators to exchange information and opinions.
"What I think I bring to the table is an awareness of technology," she said. "What I'd really like to do is bring the senate into the technological age."
Despite the advent of electricity, the telephone and the personal computer, the university's main decision-making body still operates on a mostly dead-tree model, using paper to vote, circulate briefs and accomplish many other tasks that could otherwise be completed electronically.
The senate's newly selected executive secretary and director, Banureka Montfort, plans on speeding up university politics by incorporating electronic technologies into the paperwork-laden bureaucracy.
Montfort has worked for the university before as a coordinator with the physics department, which she helped bring into the digital age by setting up electronic databases and intranets that replaced the department's mountains of tedious paper files and forms.
Her new position with the senate makes her a general guide to the members, charged with making sure senate business runs smoothly. She's replacing Mary Giles, a senate fixture of almost a decade who moved recently to Massachusetts to take a job with the Brigham and Women's Hospital.
"As a whole the senate functions great," Montfort said. "I think that some of the administrative processes could be streamlined."
For instance, the senate still votes by holding up paper cards. Montford said she would look at replacing that system with the same sort of electronic "clickers" students use to answer questions in physics classes.
"Right now, they hold up cards and it's kind of difficult in a room to count all those cards when you have 200 going up," she said.
Montfort also hopes to help facilitate easier communication between senate committees, who often exchange confidential information, by establishing a secure intranet for senators to exchange information and opinions.
"What I think I bring to the table is an awareness of technology," she said. "What I'd really like to do is bring the senate into the technological age."
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