Academic Researchers Pursue Survival As States Slash Budget Support For Science

With recession taking its toll on campuses throughout the U.S., scientists seek ways to cope with hard times Sizable cutbacks in state funding to public and private academic institutions are taking an increasingly heavy toll on campus research, say university scientists and administrators throughout the United States. The debilitating impact, they claim, is being felt as the 1991-92 school year draws to a close. While summers past may have carried the promise to university researchers of a fall term spiced with pay raises, new equipment, and refurbished labs, for many scientists the coming autumn looms like a bad storm on the horizon. The problem--and the pressing question of how to cope with it--are evident nationwide. Some 30 states have reduced their 1992 higher education appropriations: In California, Maryland, Massachusetts, and Oregon, the cutback will be at least 10 percent; Connecticut is being hit with an 18 percent reduction; Virginia is reducing its higher education allocation by 17 percent. What some observers consider to be an imminent crisis has been building for several years, they say, and few predict a reversal in the discouraging trend. Robert Rosenzweig, president of the Association of American Universities (AAU), all of whose 58 members are major research institutions, says: "No one sees relief in the future. I have talked to administrators who have had to make six successive budget cuts, some in midyear, each of which is more difficult than the last. They solve the easier problems first, and then it gets hard." For many scientists, the hard part already is upon them as they struggle to develop stratagems for maintaining an acceptable level of instruction and lab productivity, despite the tightened purse strings: Administrators are asking science faculty to take early retirement; instructors are picking up teaching loads from assistants who have been laid off; principal researchers are scrambling more animatedly to find federal grant support; and the folks in the lab are sharing equipment, shopping for used equipment, or just learning to make do with their old equipment until better days come along. At the University of Maryland, zoology department chairman Arthur Popper says he is using the "bubble gum" approach to keep his four old bacteria-killing autoclaves up and running. The department does not have money from the state to match federal funding for new equipment, or even to substantially overhaul the old machines, one of which is 25 years old. So, says Popper, "We patch them together." Compounding the equipment dilemma, the Maryland zoologist adds, is the fact that "morale is dropping" among the people associated with the research endeavor: Some faculty positions have been eliminated, secretarial support has been reduced, and salaries are being held to their present level. State-supported science on the nine campuses of the University of California has been chopped 10 percent, or $20 million, in the last year. Impacts are being felt from oceanography to astronomy, says Calvin Moore, the system's associate vice president for academic affairs. For example, the some of the Berkeley math and engineering programs have already lost about 20 percent of their faculty. Agriculture Hit Hard Agricultural programs at many land grant colleges have been decimated. Mississippi State University, for example, has been "devastated" by a loss of one-fifth of its state funding over the last several years, says Rodney Foil, vice president for agriculture, forestry, and veterinary medicine. Before the cuts bottom out, he says, 50 of 200 faculty positions will be cut, and the research programs left will be operating merely at "maintenance level." Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University has felt "the full force of state cutbacks, with no relief," says Andy Swiger, interim dean of the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences. Cuts that started in 1990 and will continue through the new fiscal year have chopped more than $20 million from the college's budget, which will be $45 million next year, says Swiger. Meanwhile, the University of Massachusetts, Amherst broke ground last year for a $56 million polymer science research center, more than half of which will come from state funds promised years ago. But the rest of the university's research effort is struggling. Faculty have not had a raise in four years, laboratories are outmoded, deteriorated buildings cannot be fixed, and the school's primary research library can't buy the journals that scientists need. Thus, the standing of the library plummeted from 47th in the nation to 93rd, as measured by a national association of research libraries, says Samuel Conti, vice chancellor for research and dean of the graduate school. Cooperation In A Crisis On the brighter side, according to Conti, the problems at his institution have brought the science faculty closer together. "There has been lots of cooperation in this crisis," he says. "Researchers are sharing equipment and they are working late at night and on weekends." Because the faculty have redoubled their efforts to secure federal and private grants, the available external funding has risen 30 percent in the last several years, offsetting the 35 percent drop over three years in state support, notes Conti. "This has brought out the nobility of the faculty," he says. "They are dedicated and devoted to their work. They are not in it for the money." On the other hand, academic scientists are keenly aware that without "the money," their research efforts will be seriously impeded, according to Donald Price, vice president for research at the University of Florida, Gainesville. Indeed, he says, state cutbacks sometimes "manifest themselves in different ways than you would expect. "When you start cutting professors' budgets," Price observes, "they suddenly have time to fill out a lot more [applications for federal] research grants." At his institution's College of Engineering, he points out, funding for the first nine months of the current fiscal year is about equal to the budget for all of the previous year--despite the fact that state funding was cut back by more than 30 percent. The enthusiastic pursuit of funds by a financially threatened science faculty, Price explains, resulted in an 81 percent jump in federal research support--and the expectation that this year's research budget overall will enjoy an increase of $20 million over last year. Innovative Tactics Richard Herman, dean of the college of computer, mathematics, and physical sciences at the University of Maryland, is trying to ease the impact of a 10 percent cut ($2.5 million) in his school's state support by innovative means. The usual flurry of colloquia and seminars that in the past featured prominent researchers from around the country has been restructured; because funding for out-of-state travel has been largely eliminated, Herman is featuring "local talent." Herman has also postponed buying new computer workstations, scraping together enough money to repair what has broken. Larger math classes are now offered because he has lost about 30 teaching and research assistants. Herman hopes state funding has now stabilized, and he says he is "blessed" that most of his staff has stayed. "There was a very good level of activity here which has been notably diminished, but hopefully we have turned the corner," he says. One approach to creatively coping with cutbacks at Maryland is expressed by Raymond Johnson, chairman of the mathematics department. Johnson says, as an example, that calculus classes at his school that used to be held in three sections of 150 students will now be held in two sections of up to 240 students. This rearrangement will place more of a load on two teachers, but will free up another to assume a faculty position that otherwise would have been dropped. On the negative side, Johnson notes that there will be fewer teaching assistants, and that those who remain will be handling math sections with more students. And, he laments, "We know that smaller classes are better." The four state-funded colleges at Cornell University have suffered 10 successive budget reductions since 1988, trimming $10 million off a all-time high of $118 million that year. Now, an additional cut of more than $5 million for the 1992 fiscal year at the colleges of Agricultural and Life Sciences; Veterinary Medicine; and Human Ecology; and the School of Industrial and Labor Relations means that as many as 92 state-funded positions will be eliminated, according to Nathan Fawcett, Cornell's director of statutory college affairs. Although the cuts are "taking a real toll," the Cornell faculty have found ways to "soften the blow," says Fawcett. The faculty have worked hard to increase the number of federal grants and contracts, he says; even at the agricultural extension and experimental stations, which have been hardest hit, research is slowly changing in nature from applied to basic, to qualify for National Science Foundation and United States Department of Agricultural grants. While changing the research agenda in this way "is very much of a concern," it is a last-ditch effort to "retain quality," says Fawcett. Reduction By Attrition But the primary strategy that Cornell, Maryland, and most state universities are using to address funding losses is to offer faculty early retirement, while raising tuition and fees. In the University of California system, for example, more than 2,000 faculty opted for early retirement last year. "Early retirement was an effective strategy, even though some research programs have been put on hold," says Al Donner, director of external relations for the Davis, Berkeley, and Riverside campuses. Meanwhile, at Cornell, the college of agriculture has had to lose 60 of 480 faculty members during the past three years through early retirement or attrition. The college's dean, David Call, says that this has had a major impact on applied research: The entomology department has been wiped out, he notes, and there now is no one doing research on insects and pests. Moreover, he adds, key positions in plant pathology, root biology, food toxicology, and microbiology have been lost. With gloomy forecasts for next year threatening another 15 research proj-ects, Call says, "our efforts are certainly diminished." There is a limit, however, to how much students are willing to pay at state universities, and how much faculty can be cut, say some administrators. A tax initiative passed by Oregon voters in 1990 mandates a phased-in 30 percent cut in state expenditures by 1997. The state administration, in turn, ordered cuts in the various state departments that matched the percentages called for in the initiative. The University of Oregon has already cut 10 percent from its 1991-93 biennial budget, in part by closing its College of Human Development Performance, and administrators have been asked to trim an additional 15 percent to take effect this summer. "If we go to that, it will be a disaster ... it would wreak havoc on the sciences," says John Moseley, the university's vice president of research. California's state deficit is now in excess of $4 billion, and its governor has asked all state agencies to propose up to 15 percent reductions in the 15 percent of the state budget that is not protected by state law--which includes $2.1 billion to fund the university system. Academic affairs vice president Moore says there is nothing left to trim. "Cutbacks in research over the long term have a deleterious effect on the competitiveness of the state," he says. "I am deeply concerned about preserving the quality of the university in the face of these problems." Renee Twombly is a freelance science writer based in Durham, N.C.

Academic Researchers Pursue Survival As States Slash Budget Support For Science

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