The provost has sent letters out to those who applied for summer grants for the improvement of instruction. He states that these will not be funded because the university cannot afford it. He cites Hurricane Katrina and declining enrollments (down 5%).
The provost has sent letters out to those who applied for summer grants for the improvement of instruction. He states that these will not be funded because the university cannot afford it. He cites Hurricane Katrina and declining enrollments (down 5%). Amy Young
Amy, I just heard that letters have gone out to finalists for summer research grants saying there is no $ for support this year. Another program gone.
Amy Young wrote: The provost has sent letters out to those who applied for summer grants for the improvement of instruction. He states that these will not be funded because the university cannot afford it. He cites Hurricane Katrina and declining enrollments (down 5%). Amy Young Amy, I just heard that letters have gone out to finalists for summer research grants saying there is no $ for support this year. Another program gone.
Not to mention the time and effort put into written preparation for the grants. Will this be "counted" when these individuals apply for promotion, tenure, MIDAS, mid-term raises, or whatever? Methinks not.
BTW, the D'Lo campus is considering funding a garden project grant for the summer. Maybe some of you would consider this opportunity to grow in D'Lo.
Emma wrote: Not to mention the time and effort put into written preparation for the grants. Will this be "counted" when these individuals apply for promotion, tenure, MIDAS, mid-term raises, or whatever? Methinks not.
Nothing counts after the big boys have taken the ball off the court.
The provost has sent letters out to those who applied for summer grants for the improvement of instruction. He states that these will not be funded because the university cannot afford it. He cites Hurricane Katrina and declining enrollments (down 5%). Amy Young
Amy:
This is a sad personal loss for me. Although these awards predate my arrival at USM, Anita Davis, Ed Jackson, Vernon Asper, and the rest of our crew on the URC worked hard to improve these over the years, and we initiated some meaningful associated research, scholarly, community partnership, and creative awards (including one for graduate students). Because these were funded in the past through the VP Res' office (or so I was told), which is funded in large part by overhead recovery from grants (and we are 5 million ahead this year in grants), coming up with the $130,000 or so for the whole deal should have been easy. The good publicity these scholarly activities produces is priceless, and although not all awards produce additional external funding, some do. If we couldn't fund this from our ENG, couldn't the foundation have put in some effort to find donors to cover this year? This should have been a priority.
youngstown wrote: Amy Young wrote: The provost has sent letters out to those who applied for summer grants for the improvement of instruction. He states that these will not be funded because the university cannot afford it. He cites Hurricane Katrina and declining enrollments (down 5%). Amy Young Amy, I just heard that letters have gone out to finalists for summer research grants saying there is no $ for support this year. Another program gone.
Youngstown,
I assumed that would be the case since the letter I saw had spaces where the words "summer grants for the improvement of instruction" were pasted in.
Amy Young wrote: The provost has sent letters out to those who applied for summer grants for the improvement of instruction. He states that these will not be funded because the university cannot afford it. He cites Hurricane Katrina and declining enrollments (down 5%). Amy Young Amy: This is a sad personal loss for me. Although these awards predate my arrival at USM, Anita Davis, Ed Jackson, Vernon Asper, and the rest of our crew on the URC worked hard to improve these over the years, and we initiated some meaningful associated research, scholarly, community partnership, and creative awards (including one for graduate students). Because these were funded in the past through the VP Res' office (or so I was told), which is funded in large part by overhead recovery from grants (and we are 5 million ahead this year in grants), coming up with the $130,000 or so for the whole deal should have been easy. The good publicity these scholarly activities produces is priceless, and although not all awards produce additional external funding, some do. If we couldn't fund this from our ENG, couldn't the foundation have put in some effort to find donors to cover this year? This should have been a priority.
Mitch,
Earlier this week (last week, maybe) you alluded to some pretty discouraging developments, was this it or is there another shoe about to drop?
Mitch--Does this mean that grant money is being used to pay the electricity bill?
Most grants have indirect cost recovery associated with them. These "overhead" charges are legit, and go into several pockets (e.g., the VP research, Provost, Deans, and often back to the departments). Although they may not literally pay the light bill, they really help to keep the ship afloat.
I agree that this is deplorable all around. I have received the benefit of a summer grant in the past. What the university administration continues to fund and not fund is something to discuss.
What is also deplorable is that Provost Grimes invited Faculty Senate to come up with some solutions to what might be funded and, as far as I know, never gave us the chance to really weigh in. So much for shared governance.