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Faculty Attendance

Monitoring at

Stanford University

Beginning June 1 Stanford University will

phase in faculty and staff attendance

tracking facilities. The unobtrusive boxes

are initially to be placed at each entrance to

the University's engineering buildings. A

speaker for the University President's

office explains that at issue is the "observed

absence of personnel at times when common sense would assume their presence."

"It [empty offices] is an embarrassment when we of the administration conduct tours

for potential donors, and our friends in Congress," elaborates the President's office in a

written statement.

An interview with a source close to University President Hennessy's office sheds light

on the move. The source asked for anonymity in light of the potential negative reaction

from affected faculty, and confidentiality constraints:

"It all started with a visit from Alabama Senator Sessions. Hennessy showed him

around our new Engineering quad, and nobody was there in the offices, once you

moved beyond the classrooms. The guy is on the Senate budget committee, and we

depend on funding for our research through agencies like the NSF [National Science

Foundation]."

Senator Sessions is known for his push towards distributing Federal resources more

evenly to include Southern states. Stanford's administration is preparing for another

public campaign by the Senator against well established universities by improving its

attendance numbers. An ominous report from the Senator's office documents his only

partially jocular remarks upon return from his fact finding mission to Stanford:

"Do these academicians do any work for the taxpayer money they guzzle up? Even we

at the Senate have to show up every once in a while to vote something down."

Asked about technical details around Stanford's new attendance systems, the

University spokesperson stressed that:

"The installations are not your grandfather's punch clocks. They are wireless machines

that interact with any electronic entry systems we have in place in those buildings. No

inconvenience at all."

When pressed about privacy concerns, the spokesperson continued: "The machines

are completely secure. They are made by Diebold, a company with years of experience

in building systems where privacy is of supreme concern, as it is to Stanford. We are

not forcing anyone to do anything. We are just working towards good faith

NEWS

accountability."

Stanford's decision to forge ahead with the attendance systems follows a move by

Silicon Valley company Yahoo! to require attendance for all of their employees,

banning a practice known as telecommuting.

The new systems have yet to produce a reaction from affected faculty. The

University's decision was announced during a quarter break when many faculty are

absent. The Chronicle was unable to solicit a response in time for this article.

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