By Peter Schmidt

The Faculty Senate of the University of Wisconsin at Madison has voted overwhelmingly to urge the administration there to slow down a proposed reorganization of the institution's Graduate School that would change how the campus handles research.

The proposed reorganization would establish a separate office, overseen by a new vice chancellor, to manage the research being performed by various graduate programs.

The proposal had met with resistance from faculty members ever since the campus's provost, Paul M. DeLuca Jr., presented it to the Faculty Senate's executive committee in July.

Some faculty members questioned the need for the proposed reorganization. The primary objection, however, was that the reorganization appeared to have been undertaken with little faculty input.

At Monday's Faculty Senate meeting, all but one of about 180 members on hand voted to approve a resolution opposing any effort to carry out the reorganization until the administration develops a full, written plan taking into account the recommendations of the senate and its executive committee.

Before the vote, the campus's chancellor, Carolyn "Biddy" Martin, told the senate that the administration had not intended to make an end-run around shared governance, but instead had been focused on responding quickly to concerns about the university's research that had been brought to her last year. Administrators have expressed worries that research grants are not being processed quickly enough and that the campus needs to do more to ensure sure that research is conducted in compliance with rules governing safety and the treatment of laboratory animals.

Chancellor Martin acknowledged at the senate meeting that the reorganization process had gotten off to a bad start. Members of the senate applauded her remarks.