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Academic Centers for Athletes Draw Donors
More than a dozen university athletics programs have added lavish new facilities in recent years, and academic-services budgets are soaring, a Chronicle survey finds. (Photograph courtesy of Texas A&M U.)
College Employees Value Campus Environment, Survey Finds
When a Chronicle survey asked college employees what they value about their jobs, they put the physical environment in which they work at the top of the list.
Rise in Tornadoes, Floods Poses Risk to Colleges
What if the sort of extreme weather that has left the University of Iowa inundated in floodwaters is not a freak event? What if it is a sign of things to come? (Photograph by AP Images)
Other News
Corn on the Quad at Lafayette College
Colleges Get Greener, but Not in Teaching
U. of Toledo Decides United Way Building Is Unsuitable for Its Use
New campus buildings
Multimedia
A Green Building as a Billboard for Science
(A 2006 Chronicle video)
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About Buildings & Grounds
Buildings & Grounds is written by Scott Carlson (left) and Lawrence Biemiller (right). Scott Carlson writes about architecture, facilties, energy, and sustainability, among other topics. Lawrence Biemiller writes about architecture and facilities and contributes to Notes from Academe. What's happening on your campus? Let us know.
Questions About the Campus 'Arms Race'
The Economist weighs in on the campus building boom—what some have called an “arms race”—in a recent issue. The article asks whether colleges are building more than they need, and whether (or, rather, how) they will pay for their overreaching in years to come.
And the article questions the boom in science facilities in particular: “The emphasis on new science space also neglects politics or humanities students. Even many undergraduates studying science will have limited access to the benefits of the new campus labs, which are there mostly for the benefit of faculty members and their graduate students. Hiring more teaching staff and cutting class sizes would probably be of more help to undergraduates than much of the new construction.”
Scott Carlson | Monday December 3, 2007 | Permalink | Contact usComments
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The competition among universities is predominantly about public research funding. I am not sure that this funding is the best way to spend tax money. It might be better to support research through education: when education generates a surplus, then that surplus can be used to fund research (which in turn might benefit education, and increase the surplus). Direct public funding of research is an anomaly.
— Gunnar Karlsson Dec 3, 03:50 PM #
The research (and patent) revenue is in science, medicine, and engineering, so every word devoted to questioning the “emphasis on new science space” is wasted in this post-Platonic universe.
Anyone who wants more balance in either research or facilities funding should stop whining and take action. Colleagues from non-science disciplines have to find a way to care about the public and convincingly demonstrate the value of their work to the people footing the bills: tuition-payers, taxpayers, and donors. Don’t linguists and gender historians require good explanations — speaking to their values — when someone wants their money?
Researchers seeking support for many arcane, difficult-to-explain science fields have been very persuasive. There is no reason why poets and other motivated paupers can’t do the same.
— S. Britchky Dec 3, 05:44 PM #