How many other universities use web-based surveys as a means of communication between faculty and administration? How about a survey about communication? It seems peculiar to me that a conversation about communication begins with a wholly new means of communication.

Meanwhile, the provost is using a survey to jump-start his pet American Democracy Project. He asks a survey of the faculty that you must begin by agreeing to a definition.

Civic Engagement : includes those activities which promote active participation in our local and global communities. Through such activities individuals and institutions dedicate themselves to meeting social needs and to upholding their rights and duties as citizens. These activities may include service-learning, community based learning, volunteerism and political activism.

Or they "may" not, right? Or have you already made up your minds about this?

What I find odd is the different way in which the administration runs the university. Rather than have a conversation, they have a poll. Rather than seek an understanding, they take a pulse. It keeps the campus at arm's length.