To:    John Petersen, UT President
From:  Louis Gross, UTK Faculty Senate President
Re:    Concerns regarding continuing email problems
Date:  February 26, 2007
cc:    Chancellor Crabtree, Chief Financial Officer Rogers
       UTK Faculty Senate Executive Committee

As per the request of the UTK Faculty Senate Executive Committee, this
is to express the continuing dismay of the faculty of UTK regarding 
the ongoing problems with the UT email systems. As I expressed
to you in the meeting of the University Faculty Council of January 
8, 2007, these problems have become more and more severe over the
past several months, are negatively impacting essentially every aspect
of faculty responsibilities here and are extremely frustrating to
our faculty. You had promised at that meeting that responsibility 
for our campus email system would be transfered to campus authority, 
along with all the necessary resources from the Office of Information 
Technology in order to fix the problems. This has not happened. In
fact the situation has further degenerated. 

I and Senate leaders have repeatedly asked that a basic memo be sent 
to faculty and the campus community regarding the email problems, 
how faculty and students are to deal with these, and what a plan 
and timeline are to improve the situation. No such communication has 
been issued and problems persist. Numerous faculty tell me that this 
has disrupted class activities as well as grant and contract matters 
and research collaborations. It is the administration's responsibility 
to ensure this Research I institution has a reliable information 
infrastructure. Both the ongoing problems and lack of communication 
regarding who is in charge and how they are dealing with the problems 
are not indicative of a responsive administration. If it is campus 
responsibility to deal with this issue, please formally state this
so we can move forward. If it is not campus responsibility to deal 
with this matter, then please require whoever is in charge to 
openly acknowledge the problems, communicate with the campus 
community about plans for dealing with the matter, and collaborate
with faculty in obtaining a solution that meets our needs and those 
of our students. 

I or our Senate Information Technology Committee will be happy to meet 
with you concerning this matter. 

Sincerely,
      Louis J. Gross
Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
    and Mathematics
Director, The Institute for Environmental Modeling
President, UTK Faculty Senate