Alter Table with Toad 10

I had to make a field for a particular table NOT NULL in some schemas. I first
used the Alter Table UI. That took 65 to 70 seconds to complete, which surprised
me. On another schema I just used SQL and that took only several seconds. I then
went onto another schema and started SQL Monitor and used the Alter Table UI.
The result is below. There is a lot of work being done to just make a field NOT
NULL. The particular issue are the queries on all_synonyms. We have a lot of
them. Is there any way to simplify this? Toad 9.7.2 did not have this issue.

TIA,

Dave