Sifting and Winnowing

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.

(more…)

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?

(more…)

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

(more…)

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.

(more…)

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:

(more…)

For all of the passion that the current restructuring issue has been arousing recently (at least among those of us who are following it), we can be thankful that the overall environment at UW-Madison remains relatively congenial, mutually respectful, and universally dedicated to the goal of maintaining the best-possible research and educational programs even in the face of challenges both internal and external.   In order to preserve those qualities, it is essential that there never be a breach of trust and respect between the faculty, staff, and administration of the type that has  afflicted a few of our peer institutions.   In particular, we draw our readers’ attention to the following website, which superficially has a similar function to this one but which apparently emerged from a far more dysfunctional and distrustful environment:  the University of Arizona’s UA Defender.

It is our sincere belief and hope that wiser heads will always prevail at UW-Madison and that both the administration and the faculty and staff will always choose productive collaboration over destructive confrontation.

- the Editors