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Year-end letter from Chancellor Martin

Thursday, May 6th, 2010

The following message was broadcast to the campus community by Chancellor “Biddy” Martin on Wednesday, May 5, 2010.  It is reproduced (with minor reformatting) in its entirety here for reference and comment by S&W readers.     The letter consists of several sections, each of which may be accessed directly via the links below.

A Year-End Letter: Opportunities, Challenges, Impressions
By Chancellor Biddy Martin

  1. Preamble
  2. The Madison Initiative for Undergraduates
  3. Great People Scholarship Campaign
  4. Research Administration and Funding
  5. Graduate Student Funding
  6. UW Foundation Presidential Search
  7. Global Health and Sustainability
  8. Diversity
  9. Faculty and Academic Staff Salaries
  10. Collaboration with WAA and UWF
  11. University Relations/Communications
  12. Looking Forward

- Eds.
(more…)

Posted in College costs, Compensation, Restructuring proposal, Shared governance, The UW-Madison Campus, The University Budget | 1 Comment »

Update: Motion to the Faculty Senate to Restructure the Research Enterprise

Thursday, April 29th, 2010

Since our previous posting on the subject of the pending motion before the Faculty Senate, a revised motion has been released by the University Committee.  The new version was disseminated via email by the chair of the University Committee, Prof. Bill Tracy.  The following links contain

As before, we urge campus faculty and staff to carefully study all aspects of the motion and to post comments here prior to the Monday (May 3d) meeting of the Faculty Senate.

Posted in Graduate School, Restructuring proposal, Shared governance, The UW-Madison Campus | 1 Comment »

Motion to the Faculty Senate to Restructure the Research Enterprise

Thursday, April 22nd, 2010

The following motion was presented at the April 12 Faculty Senate meeting concerning the proposed restructuring of UW-Madison’s research enterprise. It is reproduced here to encourage comments and discussion by the UW-Madison community prior to a vote at the next meeting of the Faculty Senate.

(more…)

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

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 | 1 Comment »

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 »

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 »

Animal research lab violations and the Graduate School restructuring plan.

Saturday, January 2nd, 2010

Those readers who have been following the Graduate School restructuring controversy are  aware that, in response to widespread criticism of the process, all action on the proposed restructuring has been put on hold by the administration pending reports from ad hoc committees assembled by the Faculty Senate and by the Academic Staff Executive Committee (ASEC).  Those reports were due by New Year’s Eve, 2009, and their public release is therefore anticipated in the very near future, perhaps even this week.

We will be very surprised if the reports endorse the wholesale restructuring pushed by Provost Paul DeLuca and Chancellor Biddy Martin.   We will be equally surprised if either the provost or the chancellor readily back down from their plan, regardless of what the reports contain.

(more…)

Posted in Restructuring proposal, The UW-Madison Campus | 6 Comments »

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