The role of academics

I got elected to the Senate of the University of Bath.  I don't know whether this is a good thing or not -- it will no doubt take time.  But I found the Faculty Board of Studies really interesting.  It helps that I am interested in intelligent systems in general, as well as it being useful to know how your own institution works.  But anyway, this time I was encouraged to run by the head of Academic Assembly, Steve Wharton, whom I really respect, so I ran.

Candidates got to make a 100 word statement -- here's mine.

One of the primary assets of a university is the knowledge of its academic staff.  Academics serve as conduits, passing knowledge to our students and exploiting it in our research.  Our expertise is also an asset of the communities that support us, whether national, international or local.

I am running to represent Academic Assembly in Senate because I want to ensure that our most immediate local community, the University, makes the best use possible of its academic staff.  I am always interested in my colleagues' opinions of university issues.  If elected, I will ensure their concerns and advice are heard.

As long as I'm being narcissistic, I found out recently that the five words I use most on twitter are "new", "time", "people", "talk" and "good", in that order.  I guess those are all things I'm interested in :-)