As the academic year begins, university executives, research administrators, and others are reviewing with considerable trepidation a deskload of headaches affecting their 1991-1992 research agendas.
There are stacks of articles about university misconduct and fraud from major newspapers and magazines, accounting ledgers revealing budgetary shortfalls, and memos from disgruntled science faculty complaining about competition for tight research dollars. University scientists themselves are coming back to piles of grant applications they will meticulously fill out with little guarantee of success.
How will this blend of fiscal pressure and bad P.R. ultimately impact academic research? Some administrators interviewed for this article say that the difficulties will not trickle down to the faculty. The problems, they say, can be handled at the administrative level; indeed, they go so far as to say that the size of university administration was bloated, anyway, and needed some restraint. Others, however, wonder what will happen next year ...
