Updated: November 10, 2009

We continue to seek your best ideas for increasing efficiency across campus. If you wonder about certain processes or have a suggestion we ought to consider, please use a forum we’ve created for the Stanford community. To access this forum, you first need to create a UserVoice account using your Stanford email address (detailed instructions below). Note: You will not be able to access the forum with your SUNet ID.

As you can see, many staff members have already shared their ideas about improving efficiency, and we’ve been able to respond to a good many. We’ve focused first on ideas that increase efficiency, as opposed to cut costs. That said, both are important—and we deeply appreciate all the thought and effort invested in every submission.

This forum will remain open through Nov. 30. At that time, we will create a new set of web pages based on successful models we have seen at other colleges and universities. Our plan is to divide the ideas by category. We will show the response to the submission or report to whom it was forwarded for more consideration. Our hope is to complete that task by spring.

Thank you to everyone who has submitted or voted for an idea. If you have further ideas, please share them with us. Again, the question is: How can we enhance efficiency?

Sincerely,

John Etchemendy, Provost

1. Create a UserVoice account. You must use your Stanford email address (e.g. @stanford.edu, @gsb.stanford.edu, etc.) when registering. If you want your ideas and comments to be anonymous, enter “Anonymous” in the name field when registering. (Note: Enter your full email address on the registration page, it may read “invalid” until you finish typing your email address). Upon registering, you will need to confirm your registration by clicking on a link in an email sent to your address.  The forum is only accessible to the Stanford community.
   
2. Login to the Stanford University Efficiency Ideas & Questions Forum using your UserVoice account.  You will see a page that looks like this:
   

   Stanford efficiency forum. We encourage you to create, vote for, and comment on ideas and questions.

3. To add a new idea, start by searching to see whether the idea or question has already been submitted.  If not, click on “Create a New Idea” to submit your idea or question:
   

   To add a new idea or question, start by searching for duplicates. Then click on "Create a New Idea".

   You can now add your new idea or question to the forum:

   

   Enter and submit your new idea or question

4. The provost has promised that each idea will be reviewed. Be sure to check the forum regularly for updates, as well as new ideas and comments by others in the Stanford community.