June 27, 2012

Lawmakers Offer Struggling Research Universities Sympathy, Not Cash

Lawmakers Offer Struggling Research Universities Sympathy, Not Cash 1

Charles Votaw Photography

James N. Siedow, vice provost for research at Duke U., testifies at a U.S. House hearing on a National Research Council review of the nation's research universities.

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close Lawmakers Offer Struggling Research Universities Sympathy, Not Cash 1

Charles Votaw Photography

James N. Siedow, vice provost for research at Duke U., testifies at a U.S. House hearing on a National Research Council review of the nation's research universities.

By Paul Basken

Washington

After two years of carefully crafting their arguments for increased federal support, leaders of the nation's research universities heard plenty of sympathy when they came before Congress on Wednesday for its verdict.

"Research universities play a vital role in America's ability to maintain its competitiveness in an increasingly technologically developed world," the chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Research and Science Education, Rep. Mo