MOSCOW, Idaho – The president of the University of Idaho says the school needs to ramp up how much research money it brings in after the dollars dropped below $100 million for the first time in four years. “While I wouldn’t say that we are stagnant in our research programs, I would say that we’ve hit a plateau,” Tim White told UI employees Thursday, The Lewiston Tribune reported. “We need to re-ignite this research engine because it is so much of what the University of Idaho is and needs to be in this nation of ours.”
Research money at the university went above $100 million for the first time in 2003 and peaked at $105 million in 2004. This year, research dollars dropped to $96.5 million.
White said a key to pushing the research money back up to former levels will be new leadership in the university’s research office.
The search to replace Chuck Hatch, who retired as the school’s president for research, has been reduced to four candidates: John McIver from the University of New Mexico, Patrick Schlievert from the University of Minnesota, Craig Nessler from Virginia Tech, and James Tracy from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Universities across the nation have seen their research dollars decline as the federal government has cut back on its investment in some areas of science.
White said part of what caused grant money to decline at the University of Idaho was faculty members leaving the school for better paying jobs and taking grants and contracts with them.
He said pay raises of about 5 percent the state provided for next fiscal year should help the school hold on to researchers.
He also said researchers weren’t leaving in large numbers, but that only two or three researchers with large outside sources of money left.
“I don’t want to diminish the importance of that,” White said, “because we hate to see them go.”
White said he expected more research money to come into the College of Engineering following the hiring of Aicha Elshabini last year as the college’s dean. White said she has helped make the college more stable.
|
5 Comments
|
According to the latest compiled & confirmed data, 2000-04, Idaho is near dead last in Federal R&D Monies to universities. That table can be viewed at http://www.ssti.org/Digest/Tables/032607t.htm Idaho universities should be put under a Chancellor style system that allocates scare resources according to need, performance, and lack of duplication, and the UoI's special independent state agency status eliminated. Without this kind of radical reform, which also includes things like full home-rule powers for the towns, cities, & counties, 4-year terms for the Idaho State Senate, and others...we're sitting ducks for the next big economic downturn. Comment By Bill
Tuesday, May 1, 2007 @ 4:20 AM
President White identified a key issue here for the State Board, and the legislature: "White said part of what caused grant money to decline at the University of Idaho was faculty members leaving the school for better paying jobs and taking grants and contracts with them." This happens at other Idaho Universities as well - a professor will leave to get a $10,000 raise, or even a $50,000 raise at another university - and take $1,000,000 in grant funding with them. That's a dumb business decision on the part of Idaho Universities. You wanna get on the map, Idaho? Let's start a race to the top. Let's decide that we're going to pay top-flight faculty like they get paid at other universities. The truth is, a Boise School district teacher at the top of the pay scale makes more money than most professors at BSU. How are you going to create a world-class research university with those metrics? Comment By Chris B.
Tuesday, May 1, 2007 @ 9:41 AM
Bill: From your mouth to God's ears... Comment By Interested party
Thursday, May 3, 2007 @ 11:19 AM
It probably will take some kind of metaphysical intervention, because Idaho's technology community sure doesn't have any balls. Ditto for the universities, that barnacle Hatch should have been gone years, no decades ago. I'm not sure about the national lab guys, they're still too worried the DOE will pull the plug if Idaho rejects their mission. Solution: pray real hard for Idaho Comment By Tom
Friday, May 4, 2007 @ 6:22 AM
The decline in research dollars is a phenomenon seen across the nation. What should concern Idahoans is the societal value placed on our educators, both at the elemtary, secondary and post secondary levels. Research dollars are investments in projects, academic activity, etc., that is found to be meaningful, meritorious and of perceived value to members, sectors of our society, and our elected officials at every level. Innovation begins with inspiration, and if we want to inspire the minds at our schools to levels that invigorate innovation for products, services, and other endeavors, then we must reward those who foster this innovation...our teachers. In Idaho, we pay our teachers very low wages, provide declining support for their salaries, and allocate declining funds for maintenance, etc., and then expect them to carry out extraordinary teaching accomplishments. A previous commentor hit the nail on the mark when he cited the lack of judgement by our ldaho schools to allow a research professor to vacate their post in hopes of securing a higher salary for their work. If the universities would compensate our researchers "fair market value" for their work, then perhaps we may have some chance at retaining them. Moreover, one does not speak of the retention issue that will be felt next year when these researchers leave, is that the students that were in the program/projects with these professors will ultimately leave as well. That is a horrible retention faux pas for any administrator. What we need to do is be mindful of our value for education and our value of educators. If we truly wanted to retain those researchers we would have demonstrated this value by retaining them with a higher salary. Perhaps administrators at our Idaho institutions will consider better courses of action when they evaluate the issue of retention, for the effects of not retaining these professors will come back to hurt the institution twice if not thrice fold. John Dillon Jr. Comment By John Dillon Jr.
Thursday, June 14, 2007 @ 4:01 PM
|
|
|
CONTACT US at 208.336.3768
WANT THREE FREE ISSUES?
