Summary Notes on "Feeding the Squeeze," by A. P. Sanoff, prism, ASEE, May-June 2001, pp. 26-28.

Summarized by J. T. P. Yao, 5/14/01

"… Many engineering schools face competition from the private sector when hiring Ph.D.'s in such hot fields as computer engineering. … Even before the economy began to head downward, many states were taking a more conservative posture toward funding higher education. … Even in states where funding in recent years has kept pace with or exceeded the rate of inflation, state dollars have accounted for a shrinking proportion of the operating funds of engineering schools. … At the University of Texas at Austin, state support accounted for about 40 percent of the budget 15 years ago, but that figure has dropped to about 25 percent today. …"

"No longer able to depend as much on state support, engineering schools are becoming increasingly reliant on research money. … Some in academia worry that the time spent raising research dollars means that faculty have less time to devote to their students. Wallace Fowler, ASEE president and an engineering professor at the University of Texas at Austin, says that schools 'depend on faculty to get grants and contracts. When you do that you are selling your time and effort, and then people wonder why faculty members don't spend as much time in the classroom.' …"

"Income from donors' gifts provides another vital revenue stream for public engineering schools unable to win more funds from their states. … Without such an infusion of private funds, say deans, it would be far more difficult to retain and recruit highly qualified faculty members."

"Research support and donor gifts could become even more important to public engineering schools over the next few years if the economy shrinks and there are more - and larger - cutbacks in state funding. The prospect of even less support from their states worries deans. …"

[Readers who are interested in this article are encouraged to read the original paper in its entirety. Other summary notes on faculty reward systems are available on the Internet at http://lohman.tamu.edu under the heading "Summaries of Papers ..."]

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