With the shuttle tracking system making both the news and editorial pages of The Poly, I’d like to take this opportunity to set the record straight. The news article on the subject is correct in virtually every detail and is as good a piece of coverage as we on the project could ask for.
The staff editorial on the topic is another matter. Confusion on the timeline of the shuttle tracking system was the first problem. Though former Grand Marshal Max Yates widely announced the idea of a shuttle tracking system over the summer of 2005 and received verbal commitments from members of the administration and Board of Trustees later in the following fall semester, those were commitments only.
For those familiar with the Institute’s financial system, fiscal years begin in July of each year. Thus, the decision was made to have the $5,000 commitment from the Administration Division be available to us in the next fiscal year beginning in July, 2006—just a few months ago. Furthermore, the $2,000 committed by members of the Board of Trustees is still in the process of being obtained.
The committee I co-chair, Finance, Facilities, and Advancement, only received the project last spring—when I joined the committee as co-chair. One may disagree with the project having been shelved until the spring, but the fact remains that the group responsible for it only received it late last semester.
The editorial’s point about this project no longer being the Senate’s own seems valid enough—until one considers the role the Senate should be playing in projects of this nature. Because many of the projects the Senate takes on are of a large-scale nature (Ruckus, peer-advising, mid-term assessments, etc.), it is clearly unreasonable for its projects to remain “all [the Senate’s] own.” Many employees of the Institute have played and continue to play key roles in making this project work (even working with our team all summer long). Jonathan Bidwell ’07, who has been on my committee since last spring, has been instrumental in the more technical points of the project. In fact, his work and the work of Lam Tran ’07, who joined our team a few weeks ago, has been so incredible that it was agreed they deserved academic credit for their work.
That doesn’t negate the tracking system as a project of the Senate. In fact, I would say that it speaks volumes that there were members of a Senate committee that worked so hard that they’re getting academic credit.
As far as success, I would rate this project a great one because it is coming in on time and well within budget. We’re getting a system comparable to our peer institutions for an amount of money that is smaller than what those institutions put forth by an order of magnitude. Thus, the project will be delivered at the cost of some delay, but we think it will be well worth it. Perhaps even more importantly, it has spurred student interest and work in the area—many supplemental features to the system are already planned and constitute virtually all of the independent study work being done.
August Fietkau
CSCI ’08
