
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, September 22, 1993                   TAG: 9309290319
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A9   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

RESEARCH FUNDS

I FIND it remarkable that two supposedly intelligent investigative reporters could spend so much time on a topic without asking the right questions or establishing the basic facts. The authors never took the

time to learn the basic principles of how higher education is financed. If they had, their articles would not contain statements such as "many colleges are providing more funds to research ... ''

Instead, they would know that most research funds are obtained by faculty members in competition with faculty members from other universities, from sources external to the colleges and universities. The university has no say in where the research money will be spent, it must be spent in accordance with the research contract. However, the university does profit from the overhead that is normally paid as a percentage of the total value of the research contract.

If the authors had asked the right questions, they would have learned that most departments in the College of Engineering at Virginia Tech have to rely on overhead funds to pay departmental operating costs because the state government does not appropriate sufficient funds to pay the necessary expenses and purchase the necessary supplies. I The state can't have it both ways.

They either have to pay the actual costs of higher education or they have to permit faculty raising their own salary and operating funds to decide how many courses they will teach. T C.W. RANDALL

BLACKSBURG

by CNB