The UW-Madison faculty senate approved the most recent proposal to restructure the Graduate School Monday.
The original proposal, which was created by provost Paul DeLuca last summer, called for separating the UW-Madison graduate school from the research enterprise and creating a new vice chancellor for research position.
Faculty Senate members formed an ad hoc committee to present recommendations to improve the original proposal after many concerns arose among faculty members regarding the purpose and effects of the proposal.
The committee submitted a report in late February urging DeLuca and Chancellor Biddy Martin to refrain from separating the graduate school and research enterprise to avoid fracturing the ""synergy"" between the two institutions.
According to Bill Tracy, chair of the Faculty Senate's University Committee, DeLuca and Martin created a new plan adhering to the ad hoc committee's recommendations.
Tracy said the new proposal will create a vice chancellor for research who will also serve as the dean of the graduate school. He said the new proposal would also move the Research and Sponsored Programs office under the vice chancellor for administration.
RSP, which is an office on campus that helps facilitate grants and funding for research, currently resides under the dean of the graduate school.
Several faculty members expressed concerns about the motives behind moving RSP.
University Committee member Judith Burstyn said RSP is mainly administrative in nature and makes more sense for it to reside under the vice chancellor for administration.
""The vice chancellor for administration controls the primary budget for the institution, so therefore it puts that unit in a more direct connection to the money of the institution,"" she said.
History professor John Sharpless proposed an amendment to ensure that members from the Graduate Faculty Executive Committee will have representation on any new committee created that will govern graduate education.
""Much of the discussion so far was without our consultation,"" Sharpless, who is also a member of the GFEC said. ""We think we perform a valuable function on the educational side.""
Both Sharpless' amendment and the overall proposal passed almost unanimously.
