Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Face to face with academic capitalism

OK, so, maybe this is a fiction.

Maybe someone wrote an application for an externally funded fellowship. It's a modest grant, about 1-10% of the numbers she's heard bandied about for things like NSF grants. It's to develop a course to teach at her university.

And then she realizes, oh! This is supposed to go through the campus grant-machinery. And she learns that she has to ask for a kickback: some funds (almost 50% of her budget) to go to the college. You know, to pay for all the wear and tear she's going to put on the university just by her presence. (Of course, she would be present even without the grant.)

And then she says a little offering of gratitude. Because now she's really seen it. The machinery of academic capitalism. And she understands, better than ever, why the sciences get so much attention. Cause their grant kickbacks are way more than 4 figures.

Yep.

Just saying.

3 comments:

Alex Reid said...

No doubt Donna. At Cortland I believe "indirect costs" are 40%, though many granting agencies limit the charging of indirect to a smaller percentage. And then, at least as I've discovered, the primary source of the college's matching funds is faculty "percentage of effort." So what the college is giving to the grant project is my labor (of course they aren't releasing me from any other responsibilities I have, unless there's money coming from the grant to subsidize such a release).

Yep, that's the way it goes. In true academic capitalist fashion, just make sure it's clear who owns the intellectual property that gets produced from such a grant.

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comfort mom said...

I have unless there's money coming from the grant to subsidize such a release

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