We wanted to let you know about a project that ASCIT is working on to help improve communication between Caltech students and the administration.

We are currently in the development stages of a system of newsgroups where members of the Caltech community can have online discussions on a variety of topics. Students, staff, faculty, and administration will all be able to participate by posting their comments, questions, or announcements. The postings will be grouped into categories called newsgroups, which will each be specific to a particular topic. These topics could be health insurance, the Serra sculpture, campus parking, social events, or the firepot. Users will also be able to subscribe to a newsgroup and receive e-mail whenever a new message is posted.

We would recommend that each Faculty and Institute committee start their own newsgroup so members of the Caltech community at large could read what was going on and offer their input. Each administrative department could certainly do the same. For example, if you want to know students' opinions on a proposed health insurance policy, you could post a question to that newsgroup. Students would then be easily able to read it and respond. If you subscribe to the health insurance newsgroup, you would receive all those responses via e-mail. When people have questions, you can answer them, and if misinformation starts to spread, you can set the record straight. One of the main reasons we are creating these newsgroups is because students want to hear from the administration. To make this work, we will need you to actively participate by posting announcements and responding to concerns.

At a time when Caltech is working towards increasing communication between members of the community, I hope the ASCIT newsgroups will change the way information travels at Caltech. Discussions would no longer go on exclusively behind closed doors, but in a place where all members of the community can participate. A prototype version of the newsgroups can be seen online at http://donut.caltech.edu/newsgroups/. We expect the system to be fully functional at the beginning of the academic year.

Sincerely,

Ted Jou, ASCIT President

Janet Zhou, ASCIT Treasurer
Communications Task Force Representative