With the recent release of the second of two ad hoc reports addressing the structure and needs of the University of Wisconsin Graduate School and research enterprise, faculty, administrators and the campus community now have a foundational analysis from which to move forward.
Although the faculty and academic staff reports both identify similar areas of concern in the graduate school and connected $900 million-a-year research enterprise, their recommendations differ.
Both reports identified similar areas of concern within the graduate school and research enterprise regarding grant management and safety and compliance.
These problem areas are consistent with the concerns raised last semester by Provost Paul DeLuca Jr. in support of his original proposal to create a separate office of vice chancellor for research to oversee the university’s research endeavors.
While the committees and the provost agree UW’s research enterprise is not functioning optimally in these areas, the causes of these shortcomings and the solutions proposed vary between the three.
Agreement on grant management concerns
The most recent Report of the Ad Hoc Committee to Determine the Needs and Structure of UW-Madison’s Research Enterprise confirmed shortcomings in Research and Sponsored Programs surrounding grant and award management.
Where DeLuca attributed these problems to inadequate administrative oversight, the report identifies a lack of funding and staffing in RSP as the root cause.
The administrative accountability of RSP moved to the graduate school in 1992 from the Office of Business Services, the faculty report said.
When this move occurred, the faculty report says, the authority to manage funding and staffing levels in RSP to keep pace with increasing research grants stayed in the Office of the Chancellor.
“That separation of funding authority from the responsibility for the management of research administration and a significant lag in the allocation of funded positions to RSP seems likely to have contributed to many of the problems in this area,” the report said.
The academic staff ad hoc report released last month similarly identified a misconnect in growing federal grants and an investment in the infrastructure of offices responsible for managing them after RSP’s transfer to the graduate school.
“Understaffing, low morale and staff turnover issues continue in RSP,” the ASEC report said.
Concerns over safety and compliance
Both reports identify a lack of funding and lack of clear lines of accountability and reporting as central to recent problems that have arisen in the area of safety and compliance.
DeLuca has frequently referenced several instances where federal reviews of UW’s research facilities found numerous violations, threatening the continued success of the institution.
“In our present organizational structure, the compliance related infrastructure is fractured across the organization that needs to be pulled into one homogenous operation and reporting to the vice chancellor for research,” DeLuca said in a previous interview with The Badger Herald.
While neither report advocates unifying safety and compliance oversight in any office separate from that of the graduate school, both agree there is a lack of clear lines of accountability and leadership.
“UW-Madison has an ad hoc, decentralized compliance and safety structure,” the academic staff report said. “The lack of clear reporting lines of authority and responsibility has contributed to a pattern of regulatory citations.”
The academic staff report goes on to say while the current structure supports shared governance, it creates inherent conflicts of interest.
Currently, oversight of research safety and compliance is spread across the graduate school associate dean for research policy, the associate vice chancellor for facilities planning and management, the associate vice chancellor and chief of police.
The faculty report agrees this structure lacks a clear line of leadership and responsibility but simultaneously recognizes its merits.
“This collaborative arrangement, with expertise that collectively covers the full spectrum of safety concerns is critical and needs to be preserved,” the faculty report said.
Differing solutions to common problems
While there seems to be general agreement about certain problems facing UW’s research enterprise, the proposed solutions to these problems vary significantly.
Neither report supports a wholesale restructuring like that proposed by DeLuca.
“The committee fails to see how the administration’s proposed broad reorganization would have prevented the recent problems our university has experienced any better than if the current structure had been adequately funded and if all personnel had met performance expectations,” the faculty report said.
Similarly, the academic staff ad hoc committee saw no need to divide responsibilities currently unified in the Dean of the Graduate School’s Office.
“The committee heard no compelling argument for separating research and graduate education into distinct offices,” the academic staff report said.
While the reports agree large-scale reorganization is not the best solution to these problems, the faculty report does propose a more top-down solution, while the academic staff report suggests addressing the issues on a lower level.
Along the lines of DeLuca’s proposal, the faculty report recommends creating a vice chancellor for research and dean of the graduate school position. This would essentially formalize the current working title of dean of the graduate school.
The faculty report also recommended expanding the role of the associate deans of the graduate school, to lessen the burden on the dean of the graduate school.
To address concerns with safety and compliance as well as grant management, the faculty report recommended moving RSP and responsibility for compliance and safety to the vice chancellor for administration.
The academic staff report most strongly recommended the chancellor and provost conduct an independent system-wide needs analysis review of the research enterprise before proposing further structural solutions.
