Current and former staff shared concerns about the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s merger of botany and integrative biology departments into a new Department of Biology on July 1 — including layoffs, mistrust of a botany department administrator and worries the merged department would lower the focus on botany.
The department merge started from “an extensive shared governance process that began in Fall 2021,” according to an article by UW-Madison.
When the University Academic Planning Council voted to approve the creation of the merged department in November 2025, the council noted concerns including the botany department’s “deep fear” of being left behind if the name were to be the Department of Biology.
After convening a working group to assess concerns, the formation of the new department was presented to the Faculty Senate in December 2025.
On May 1, an integrative biology and botany staff climate assessment about the merger, given anonymously to The Daily Cardinal, found staff concerns about a high workload, a lack of support and not enough recognition of differences between the merged departments in the new department that brings together multiple academic programs and various natural history collections.
The assessment included 38 out of 40 department-paid staff, such as administrative staff, lab coordinators or instructors — excluding professors, graduate students and undergraduates.
"Botany was also very worried about the merger kind of erasing botany," Joe, a faculty member in the new department who was given a pseudonym for privacy, told The Daily Cardinal. "Historically… botany departments, when they get merged with biology departments or other life science departments, they eventually lose the botany from the department altogether because there's less of a focus on plant research."
Joe cited Duke University’s closure of its 100-year-old herbarium in 2024 and later merge of the herbarium with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s herbarium, which is set to open in 2027. Some of the herbarium faculty said they believe the herbarium closed because of limited resources, competition from other departments and the aging staff maintaining the plant collection, according to the Duke Chronicle.
A Phys.org study led by researchers at University College Dublin concluded the world’s education pathways do not have enough qualified plant scientists to face issues such as climate change.
To ease concerns about the erasure of the botany department, Joe said the new biology department created a Center for Botany.
Both integrative biology and botany staff have had fewer opportunities to participate in department committees since the merger, Joe said.
Bob, a former botany faculty member who was given a pseudonym, cited the behavior of their former department administrator, Julie Lindsey, as another reason for leaving. Lindsey was the former administrator of the combined department who left this fall.
"The department administrator is primarily the reason I left because of the way she treated people. I saw her treat people badly. She treated me badly on multiple occasions, and that was the motivation," Bob said. "Other people had a lot of negative interactions with her, and I wasn't the only one. There were points where I didn't want to go to work the days that she was there."
Joe said he heard similar issues from other staff about Lindsey.
"There was a specific case where I was told a staff member didn't know how to use Excel, and so [Lindsey] started giving them tasks where they had to use Microsoft Excel, which then created a pattern of documenting that they couldn't fulfill part of their job," Joe said. "Basically documenting a pattern of behavior so that she could potentially get rid of that person who was more senior at the time."
Gillian Drummond, Director of Public Affairs, said the department was unaware of the situation and employees supervised by the department administrator were never placed on a performance improvement plan.
“The role of the department administrator is to execute the directives of the department leadership,” Drummond said to the Cardinal in an email statement. “Employees with concerns about decisions communicated or implemented by the department administrator should contact the department chair or the appropriate Dean’s office.”
Concerns about staffing and budgets have also emerged amid uncertainty surrounding federal research funding. UW-Madison warned that a 15% indirect-cost rate announced by the National Institutes of Health in February 2025 could significantly disrupt research. In the same year, the National Science Foundation announced a 15% cap, but it was later vacated by a federal court, preventing the NSF from implementing it at the time.
David Baum, a senior professor in the Biology Department, told the Cardinal that departmental budget cuts implemented as a result of federal uncertainty varied between 5% and 10%, depending on the department, with the average being 7%.
“Unfortunately, one of the easiest ways to save money is to reduce the number of teaching assistantships,” Baum said. “That's bad for grad students as well, because they have fewer opportunities to be funded and get experience teaching.”
Baum said the department’s biggest challenge wasn’t just the merger itself, but how it collided with other upheavals, making it crucial to support staff and faculty.
"I think as a department, it is so important to respect the team, remind them how important they are to the functioning of the department, and really listen to their concerns," Baum said. "Decisions about budget and similar things are determined in the department by an executive committee… and my understanding is that there will be a staff representative speaking for the staff on that committee, and I support that 100%."
Bob said his decision to leave was not a reflection of the department as a whole.
"When I first started working on campus, there was no biology department. And so it was a long time coming," Bob said. "There are a lot of great things about the department. There’s a lot of great people, and the things that they do are amazing."
Mary Halloran, chair of the new Department of Biology, told the Cardinal her goals are centered on bringing together both former departments while building a solid foundation for the new department.
"The Biology Department leadership team reviewed the climate assessment summary [and] followed up with multiple individuals and groups," Halloran wrote in an email to the Cardinal. "We clearly heard that staff want an increased voice and participation in governance, and we recognize the need for more community-building activities."
Halloran said the merger has been in discussion for years, but has been established more firmly over the last four years. As a result, Halloran is more than excited about the new department because of how much collaboration between the two former departments of Botany and Integrative Biology went into this program.
"Everyone is participating, and we're getting feedback from everyone, from graduate students and staff and faculty," Halloran said. "When you get people together to talk over ideas and iron out differences, you make something better than it would have been if you didn't have many voices involved."
Halloran said all seven undergraduate programs, majors and certificates will remain the same, as will the courses for students studying everything from molecules and cells to ecosystems and large environments.
"The good thing is going to be the people. The more that people have an opportunity to know each other and talk, the more that it will be difficult for things to be swept under the rug," Joe said. "The teaching and learning that happens… is going to continue to serve students really well, and I think that there will be a lot of really fruitful interactions that come out of people being closer together."
Baum said he's always been invested in the department's well-being, and despite some worries, it's been going well.
"We all care about doing great research, providing fantastic experiences for students in labs and great classes," Baum said. "So we all agree on what we want to do, and as long as we can keep coming back to that, I really think we'll get through these tricky issues."
