The University of Massachusetts plans to realign its top management, with the system’s president, Jack M. Wilson, taking a more hands-on role in running the flagship campus, in Amherst. But, The Boston Globe reported today, the announcement already has led to a trustee’s resignation and drawn criticism from faculty members, who say they were kept in the dark about the decision.

Under the plan, Mr. Wilson would also lead the Amherst campus, replacing John V. Lombardi, who would step down at the end of the 2007-8 academic year, following a transition period. The plan also calls for several other personnel shifts among the system’s campus leaders.

Mr. Wilson said the changes were part of efforts to combine the campuses into a single, more efficient system and to raise its standing among other public universities, in particular through promoting scientific collaboration.

But critics said it was unclear how the leadership shuffle would raise UMass’s profile. “Organizational structure is not a magic-bullet solution,” one faculty member told the Globe. “The systems that are more successful have more money.” The trustee who resigned said the changes would “do more harm than good.”

Mr. Wilson has said the new structure would be tried for a year, while a commission assessed how much authority the system’s president ought to have over individual campuses. —Karin Fischer