Spring Break
Tuition, state dollars diverted to research
As CSU beefs up research efforts and marketing, burden falls on struggling students, colleges
Aaron Hedge and J. David McSwane
Issue date: 9/23/08 Section: News
Frank says the investment of student's dollars in research, which institutional reports show has a negligible monetary return, is controversial among some faculty circles. While he says it's a wise investment, he said the money could instead be funneled into instruction.
"You've got limited resources at CSU," he said. "There's research out there that argues you could invest that money somewhere else. And that's a very legitimate question."
And as the push continues, CSU's research expenditures surpass that of peer institutions by 27 percent, up from three years ago when the university was at the bottom of the list of peer institutions. But conversely, CSU falls about 6 percent behind in instructional spending, according to university officials.
And critics of the research campaign say student's money should go to fund the academic colleges to bring that number up.
"The money that funds this stuff comes out of the general fund," said John Straayer, a CSU political science professor. "As the burden has been shifting more and more on the students, large chunks of that money aren't going to the instructional side. I think that's questionable."
Despite drastically increased student fees, tuition costs climbing at three times the rate of inflation and state funding falling $832 million behind other states, the president promises to spend more time on the road vying for research grants, which aren't alleviating the university's dire financial woes.
Money granted to the university for research can't legally be used for other university needs -- tenure faculty promotion, construction, financial aid, anything that doesn't apply to the specific research project or associated overhead costs -- and is focused almost exclusively on the sciences.
And as the university consistently breaks records each year in overall research expenditures, the amount taken from the general fund also increases, annual CSU expenditure reports show.
"You've got limited resources at CSU," he said. "There's research out there that argues you could invest that money somewhere else. And that's a very legitimate question."
And as the push continues, CSU's research expenditures surpass that of peer institutions by 27 percent, up from three years ago when the university was at the bottom of the list of peer institutions. But conversely, CSU falls about 6 percent behind in instructional spending, according to university officials.
And critics of the research campaign say student's money should go to fund the academic colleges to bring that number up.
"The money that funds this stuff comes out of the general fund," said John Straayer, a CSU political science professor. "As the burden has been shifting more and more on the students, large chunks of that money aren't going to the instructional side. I think that's questionable."
Despite drastically increased student fees, tuition costs climbing at three times the rate of inflation and state funding falling $832 million behind other states, the president promises to spend more time on the road vying for research grants, which aren't alleviating the university's dire financial woes.
Money granted to the university for research can't legally be used for other university needs -- tenure faculty promotion, construction, financial aid, anything that doesn't apply to the specific research project or associated overhead costs -- and is focused almost exclusively on the sciences.
And as the university consistently breaks records each year in overall research expenditures, the amount taken from the general fund also increases, annual CSU expenditure reports show.
Viewing Comments 1 - 2 of 2
Alum13
posted 9/23/08 @ 2:25 PM MST
This "Collegian Investigation" was already reported a week ago in an in-depth series on the Colorado Independent: www.coloradoindependent.com
The Dark Lord
posted 9/23/08 @ 5:29 PM MST
This piece isn't an "investigation."
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