Sifting and Winnowing

I’m frustrated by the proposal to restructure the graduate school.  Indeed, I’m afraid of such action.

I’m frustrated that only one plan is presented. The Provost says at each Town Hall that he has looked at this in a variety of ways and that this is the only solution he can come to. Complex problems need to be addressed by a team of diverse capabilities, so it is not surprising that he came up with one solution, and likely not the best one.

I’m frustrated by the lack of broad faculty input in the development of a plan to address these problems. There is no involvement by the UC, the graduate school or academic staff in developing an appropriate plan.

I’m frustrated by Town Hall meetings and the inability of the Provost to answer questions at those meetings. Seriously, review the videos. Listen to the question and then the Provost’s response. Often his response is an anecdotal story that really doesn’t answer the question posed. Too many times does he say “I don’t see why you would think that.”

So, as Halloween approaches I thought I’d take on a scary costume.

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The following resolution is scheduled to be voted on by the Faculty Senate on Monday, November 2, 2009:

RESOLUTION FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY REGARDING THE PROPOSED REORGANIZATION OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL

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Chancellor Martin’s letter to the community indicates that she and the provost have accepted the shared governance process, belatedly. This is a positive development. So, in the spirit of shared governance let’s consider the administration’s proposal and see what we think about it.

The essence of the current proposal is to centralize control over our research enterprise by splitting research functions off from the Graduate School and consolidating them in a new office for research under a new vice-chancellor. The question of whether such centralization would be a good move can be broken down into two parts. First, what might we gain? Second, what could we lose?

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It is impossible to know whether Chancellor Biddy Martin is aware of this site and of some of the views that have been expressed here over the past two weeks.  Nevertheless, it appears that she is aware, in general, of concerns about the restructuring plan.  She is almost certainly aware of the resolution that is now part of the agenda for the Nov. 2 Faculty Senate meeting  (the exact and final wording of which will be posted here as soon as it becomes public).

Moments ago, this letter,

From the desk of the chancellor: Chancellor addresses Graduate School proposal

was posted on the University news site.

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While I agree with most of the other points already raised in criticism of the Provost’s plan to reorganize the graduate school and research, I’d like to take yet one more spin on the proposal that I feel has yet to be addressed.

The Provost asked the question in his last town hall meeting on Oct 14th, “How are research and graduate education best organized for success?”  Let’s ask the question another way:

What does UW Madison need to prioritize in order to sustain our success in research as measured by national rankings?

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Provost Paul M. DeLuca, Jr. was recently overheard saying that he was “surprised at the uproar” over his Graduate School restructuring proposal.   These  four simple words — surprised at the uproar — reveal more clearly than anything else we have heard to date how we came to be unwilling passengers in a slow-motion political train wreck that could leave faculty and staff wary and distrustful of administration motives and priorities for years to come.  In particular, they reveal that Provost DeLuca

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Late last night, someone signing as “Elmer Fudd” posted the following reply to this article:

This is just silly.

To anyone who has written and managed research grants at the UW in the past few years, it is clear that there need to be some serious changes. The Office of Research and Sponsored Programs (RSP) is seriously overwhelmed, and the Graduate School is just not doing a very good job at crucial research proposal and grants management tasks.

All to often, there have been serious “close calls” of losing a grant, violating terms of grants & contracts, etc. And the burden of these missteps almost always falls on the faculty and staff who bring in research grants.

To those in the University Senate who are complaining about this: give me a break. This is a really good idea, and the only reason people are complaining is the typical knee-jerk reaction to change that always comes out of faculty governance.

Let the Chancellor do her job. Let the Provost do his. A new VP for Research would be tremendously helpful, and align the UW with our peer institutions — finally — in this critical area.

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It has just come to our attention that a resolution has been prepared for presentation at the next meeting of the Faculty Senate on November 2.  The reported wording of the resolution is as follows:

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