Archive for the ‘The UW-Madison Campus’ Category

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The other shoe drops: UC Ad Hoc Committee report on the research enterprise.

Monday, February 22nd, 2010

As reported here and elsewhere,  the Academic Staff Executive Committee (ASEC) Ad Hoc Committee on the Research Enterprise already released its report back on January 22.

We had been waiting with bated breath for the counterpart committee appointed by the faculty’s University Committee (UC) to release its own findings on the same issue.  This report was originally due by the end of 2009, but this deadline could not be met.

The following message has just now  (2:50 pm today) been broadcast by the University Committee: (more…)

Posted in Graduate School, Restructuring proposal, Shared governance, The UW-Madison Campus | No Comments »

Mark your calendars: Campus Forum on Financing Public Higher Education

Friday, February 19th, 2010

How will we pay for public higher education in Wisconsin and at UW-Madison in the years to come? Metaphorically speaking, we have entered a dark fiscal tunnel of unknown length, and that glimmer of light up ahead just might be an oncoming train.  According to former UW System President Kathryn Lyall (pers. comm.),

[T]his is the overarching policy issue of the decade (century?) and we need all members of the university community, as well as those in the wider public, to understand the inexorable trends that are driving the university’s future and what it can expect to do for the state in the future.

Three separate campus organizations — PROFS, UFAS, and CAPE — have come together to jointly sponsor the first of a planned series of public forums on the subject, to be held Tuesday, February 23, 4:00-5:30 pm at the Memorial Union (check Today in the Union to confirm the room location; tentatively the Wisconsin Inn). (more…)

Posted in College costs, State-University Relations, The UW-Madison Campus, The University Budget, The University System | No Comments »

Press coverage of the restructuring controversy

Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010

(Last updated Feb. 2, 2010)

Links to all relevant articles in the press, including some recent national coverage, are collected here in chronological order for the convenience of readers.

(more…)

Posted in Graduate School, Restructuring proposal, The UW-Madison Campus | 3 Comments »

The Chronicle mentions ASEC report on restructuring – and a reader replies.

Monday, January 25th, 2010

The Chronicle of Higher Education made brief mention of the Capital Times article on the report from the Academic Staff Executive Committee (ASEC) Ad Hoc committee on the Research Enterprise.  (Unfortunately, the Chronicle misattributed the report to the faculty, which has not yet issued its report on the same subject.)

Of greater interest than the Chronicle posting itself is one reader’s response, a short excerpt of which follows:

The real story here is not the restructuring of research supporting systems but the broader issue of disintegrating research administration infrastructures at Wisconsin, and indeed across the United States. Offices that manage sponsored programs (grants, contracts, research fellowships, etc.) universally have had flat budgets for the past decade, and yet this period saw an unprecedented growth in research funding (e.g., doubling of NIH grants) as well as a torrent of new regulatory requirements governing all aspects of research (electronic submission of proposals, research subjects, animal care, conflict of interest, export controls, accounting, reporting, auditing, technology transfer, etc.).

(continue reading comments)

From our vantage point at S&W at least, this is indeed a new perspective on the restructuring issue.   We hope more  readers will weigh in.

Posted in Restructuring proposal, Shared governance, State-University Relations, The UW-Madison Campus, The University Budget | No Comments »

The Academic Staff report on Graduate School restructuring

Friday, January 22nd, 2010

The first shoe has dropped.   The Academic  Staff Ad Hoc Committee on the Research Enterprise has returned its white paper.   Their charge was “[t]o assess whether the present UW-Madison Research Enterprise structure is capable of addressing current and future issues, or whether an alternative organizational structure such as that proposed by the Chancellor and the Provost is needed.”

Their unambiguous conclusions:  “yes” to the first question, and “no” to the second. (more…)

Posted in Restructuring proposal, Shared governance, The UW-Madison Campus | No Comments »

Encouraging signs concerning the Graduate School restructuring process

Tuesday, January 19th, 2010

Many of us have been waiting with bated breath for (a) the reports of the faculty and academic staff ad hoc committees on Provost Paul DeLuca’s proposal to divest the Graduate School of research functions, and (b) the administration’s response to those reports.

The reports were originally due at the end of last month.  The Badger Herald now reports that the due dates have been pushed back to January 21 in the case of the ASEC report and to the end of the month for the University Committee report. (more…)

Posted in Graduate School, Restructuring proposal, Shared governance, The UW-Madison Campus, Uncategorized | No Comments »

Dramatic action in New York — could UW benefit from similar leadership?

Sunday, January 17th, 2010

Yesterday, the office of Governor Paterson (New York) issued this press release: http://www.ny.gov/governor/press/press_01151001.html

The full text is reproduced below for the convenience of S&W readers.  While we have not had time to digest the details, our impression at first reading is that the problems facing the SUNY system are very comparable to those facing us here at UW and that similar dramatic action and creative leadership are urgently needed.  As always, reader comments are invited. (more…)

Posted in State-University Relations, The UW-Madison Campus, The University Budget, The University System, Uncategorized | No Comments »

The administration responds to animal lab citations.

Thursday, January 7th, 2010

The following letters from the administration provide another perspective on the recently reported animal lab citations:

January 4, 2010
To:      Deans and Directors
From:  Provost Paul M. DeLuca Jr. and Graduate School Dean Martin Cadwallader
Re:      USDA report on UW-Madison research animal programs

Recently, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) conducted a routine, unannounced inspection of UW-Madison research programs that involve animals used in research.

The inspection found a small number of instances where the university was not in full compliance with the federal rules and regulations.

(more…)

Posted in Graduate School, Medicine and Public Health, The UW-Madison Campus | 2 Comments »

Reflections on the NY Times “engagement survey”.

Tuesday, January 5th, 2010

The education supplement of the NY TIMES 1/3/10 included a report on the National Survey of Student Engagement in 1200 college and universities. The Times reported on about 100 (visit this page, scroll down and look for heading ‘Engagement’ in the center column).

The survey examines “engagement” in significant facets of university life: time spent in preparing for class, extracurricular activity and for purposes here “quality of relationship with faculty” (helpfulness and availability).

(more…)

Posted in Instruction, The UW-Madison Campus | 1 Comment »

The future of public research universities?

Monday, January 4th, 2010

The Chronicle of Higher Education has just published a piece entitled Needed: a National Strategy to Preserve Public Research Universities that should be mandatory reading for those concerned about the future of UW-Madison. Unfortunately, we cannot legally reprint the entire article here, and access is for subscribers only (and, rumor has it, those accessing via the library system from a UW account). The following key quotes, however, summarize the problem: (more…)

Posted in State-University Relations, The UW-Madison Campus, The University Budget, The University System | 2 Comments »

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