diff --git a/webapp/src/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/controller/VitroRequest.java b/webapp/src/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/controller/VitroRequest.java
index 43ca626da..082725026 100644
--- a/webapp/src/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/controller/VitroRequest.java
+++ b/webapp/src/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/controller/VitroRequest.java
@@ -2,9 +2,6 @@
 
 package edu.cornell.mannlib.vitro.webapp.controller;
 
-import java.io.UnsupportedEncodingException;
-import java.util.HashMap;
-import java.util.Iterator;
 import java.util.Map;
 
 import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest;
@@ -19,21 +16,8 @@ import edu.cornell.mannlib.vitro.webapp.dao.jena.JenaBaseDao;
 
 public class VitroRequest extends HttpServletRequestWrapper {
 
-    private static final String FROM_ENCODING = "ISO-8859-1";
-    private static final String TO_ENCODING = "UTF-8";
-    public static boolean convertParameterEncoding = true;
     //Attribute in case of special model editing such as display model editing
-    public static final String SPECIAL_WRITE_MODEL = "specialWriteModel";
-    
-    public static boolean getConvertParameterEncoding() {
-        return convertParameterEncoding;
-    }
-
-    public static void setConvertParameterEncoding(boolean cpe) {
-        convertParameterEncoding = cpe;
-    }
-
-    private Map<String,String[]> convertedParameterMap;
+    public static final String SPECIAL_WRITE_MODEL = "specialWriteModel";     
 
     private HttpServletRequest _req;
 
@@ -163,80 +147,19 @@ public class VitroRequest extends HttpServletRequestWrapper {
         setAttribute("appBean",ab);
     }
 
-    /* These methods are overridden so that we might convert URL-encoded request parameters to UTF-8
-     * Call static method setConvertParameterEncoding(false) to disable conversion.
-     */
     @SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
 	@Override
-    public Map<String, String[]> getParameterMap() {
-        if ((_req.getAttribute("convertParameterEncoding") != null && !((Boolean)_req.getAttribute("convertParameterEncoding"))) || _req.getParameterMap() == null || this.getMethod().equals("POST") || !convertParameterEncoding) {
-            return _req.getParameterMap();
-        } else {
-            if (convertedParameterMap == null){                
-                convertedParameterMap = convertParameterMap( _req.getParameterMap() );
-            }
-            return convertedParameterMap;
-        }
+    public Map<String, String[]> getParameterMap() {        
+        return _req.getParameterMap();        
     }
     
     @Override
     public String getParameter(String name) {        
-        if ((_req.getAttribute("convertParameterEncoding") != null && !((Boolean)_req.getAttribute("convertParameterEncoding"))) || _req.getParameter(name) == null || this.getMethod().equals("POST") || !convertParameterEncoding)
-            return _req.getParameter(name);
-        else {
-            Map<String, String[]> pmap = getParameterMap();
-            String[] values = pmap.get(name);
-            if( values == null )
-                return null;
-            else if( values.length == 0 )
-                return null;
-            else 
-                return values[0];
-        }
+        return _req.getParameter(name);        
     }
 
     @Override
     public String[] getParameterValues(String name) {
-        if ((_req.getAttribute("convertParameterEncoding") != null && !((Boolean)_req.getAttribute("convertParameterEncoding"))) || this.getMethod().equals("POST") || !convertParameterEncoding)
-            return _req.getParameterValues(name);
-        else {
-            Map<String, String[]> pmap = getParameterMap();
-            if( pmap != null )
-                return pmap.get(name);
-            else
-                return null;
-        }
-    }
-    
-    public static HashMap<String,String[]> convertParameterMap( Map<String, String[]> map ){
-        if( map == null ) return null;
-        
-        HashMap<String,String[]> rMap = new HashMap<String,String[]>();
-        Iterator<String> keyIt = map.keySet().iterator();
-        while (keyIt.hasNext()) {        
-            String key = keyIt.next();                
-            rMap.put(key, convertValues( map.get(key) ));        
-        }
-        return rMap;
-    }
-    
-    public static String[] convertValues(String[] in ){
-        if( in == null ) return null;
-        String[] rv = new String[ in.length ];        
-        for (int i=0; i<in.length; i++) {
-            rv[i] = convertValue( in[i] );
-        }
-        return rv;
-    }
-    
-    public static String convertValue(String in ){
-        if( in == null ) return null;
-        try{            
-            return new String(in.getBytes(FROM_ENCODING), TO_ENCODING);                    
-        } catch (UnsupportedEncodingException e) {
-            System.out.println(e);
-            return null;
-        }
-    }
-
+        return _req.getParameterValues(name);        
+    }                
 }