Faculty research funds fall $20K short

Faced with competing demands for limited funds, the Committee on Faculty Research is battling the bottom line.

Conference spending beyond the budget has exhausted reserves, and new challenges complicate the distribution of research money, Ann Marie Rasmussen, outgoing chair of the committee, reported Thursday to the Arts and Sciences Council.

Over each of the past two years, about 200 of the 450 eligible faculty have received $1,000 grants to attend up to two conferences. These allotments add up to significantly more than the $180,000 annual budget, and the committee has spent all of its $60,000 reserves.

“On what basis do you deny funding?” asked Rasmussen, associate professor of German languages and literature. At the moment, she said, anyone who proves that her presence at a conference would help Duke’s visibility receives the money.

Several faculty noted that $1,000 is insufficient to pay for international trips. Some suggested a larger limit, which could worsen the budget crunch.

The committee has requested the additional $20,000 per year it needs to stay in the black. Katherine Ewing, chair of the council, affirmed the possibility of increased funding.

A bigger budget would require administrative support—support that George McLendon, dean of the faculty of Arts and Sciences, seemed ready to offer. McLendon, who was not at the meeting, has previously suggested expanding the committee’s functions. For instance, faculty might make decisions about grants for hosting conferences at Duke.

McLendon has voiced his intention to raise the amount of research funding, the other portion of the committee’s budget, Ewing said, but he has not yet given an exact number.

Partial funding is often awarded in an effort to fund as many of the qualified proposals as possible, Rasmussen explained.

Council members questioned the distribution of money across the three divisions, which is proportional to the number of applications received from professors in each discipline. Ewing pointed out that interdisciplinary work, an increasing focus of the University, can complicate the process.

One well-received suggestion was publicizing the names of faculty who win the grants. This would be “good information to have in the Duke Dialogue,” said Lee Baker, associate professor of cultural anthropology.

Other concerns included the lateness of the application deadline, the $5,000 cap and the small number of applications, particularly outside the humanities.

Another issue under discussion was the possibility of using research money to pay for subventions, fees that some research publishers now charge for printing academic works. Rasmussen, however, argued that the amount of money needed would be far beyond the committee’s resources.

“[Paying for subventions] is something that I would hope the University would be moving toward,” said Ian Baucom, associate professor of English. He suggested, however, that the Committee on Faculty Research is not best positioned to address the issue.

Significant changes to the committee will require money. Although McLendon has suggested that more could become available, he has not said from where those resources would come.

“We’re sort of operating with a dearth of information in terms of the big picture,” Ewing said.

In other business:

Faculty unanimously approved a new certificate program in politics, philosophy and economics.

Among others, students eyeing a career in law should be particularly interested in the program, said Alex Rosenberg, professor of philosophy. The most capable students, he added, would particularly benefit from a coherent program addressing the connections between these disciplines.

In a letter to faculty, Matt Serra, director of assessment for Trinity College, explained that technical difficulties had delayed the completion of an easier system for faculty to approve posting course evaluations on ACES. So far, 250 professors have responded to a mass e-mail sent last week, Ewing said. Those who do not respond will get individual e-mails beginning Mar. 11. The new system should be ready in time for next semester.