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Small-Scale Science

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By Chris Woolston

Week after week, The Chronicle carries large ads from tiny institutions. Dinkyville State University needs a microbiologist. College-You-Never-Heard-Of is looking for a high-energy physicist. You may have always pictured yourself at a place like the University of California at Los Angeles or the University of Wisconsin at Madison -- i.e., on a sprawling campus with a huge enrollment and a research budget to match. But should you consider giving small-scale science a try?

From Berkeley to Galesburg

If you're like Stuart Allison, a small college may be just right. Mr. Allison earned his Ph.D. at Berkeley in 1991, and now he's an associate professor of biology at Knox College in Galesburg, Ill. With a few stops in between, he went from one of the world's most prestigious research institutions to a place where the entire biology faculty can fit in a minivan.

The transition wasn't hard. Mr. Allison grew up 15 miles from the Knox campus, so he immediately felt at home. He also happens to harbor a passion for old pickup trucks, an abundant resource in Galesburg. Most of all, he's happy with his career. "I was wanting to go to a smaller school," he says. "It's worked out very well for me."

Mr. Allison studied disturbance ecology at Berkeley. In the process, he also got a top-notch education in the politics and stress of big-school science. "It's no longer publish or perish," he says. "It's bring in grants or perish. It's a lot of pressure, and it's counterproductive."

At small, liberal-arts colleges like Knox, the mandate is teach or perish. Mr. Allison and his colleagues still have to bring in grants and publish papers, of course. "You have to be productive or you won't be successful," he says. But when it's time for advancement, teaching evaluations carry as much weight as a fat CV. "If teaching doesn't turn you on, this probably isn't the place for you," he says.

Walla Walla Research

And if Knox College isn't your kind of place, it's safe to cross Whitman College off your list, too. Paul Yancey knew nothing about the college in Walla Walla, Wash., when he ran across one of its job ads in 1981. Whitman was looking for a marine ecologist and physiologist, and he, conveniently, was a marine ecologist and physiologist looking for a job. Twenty-one years later, he's a full professor with an endowed chair and a worldwide reputation.

Mr. Yancey earned his bachelor's degree at Caltech and his Ph.D. at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography at UC-San Diego. His stint there gave him a firsthand view of big science, and he didn't always like what he saw. "Professors at big schools have almost no contact with undergrads," he says. After giving lectures to classes with 300 students, he wondered if it was time to scale down.

Still, he wasn't completely sold on the small-college scene until he and his wife, the biologist Sue Weiler, arrived at Whitman. "We honestly thought it might be a steppingstone" to a larger school, he says. "But we loved it so much here we decided to stay."

Strong Support

Some small colleges spend more money on lawn maintenance than on research, but Knox and Whitman make science a priority. Knox boasts two electron microscopes and a 760-acre field station, and Whitman just opened a new $13-million science building.

When Mr. Allison first arrived at Knox, he received a generous start-up package to purchase new equipment and an impressive 800 square feet of lab space. Mr. Yancey also has plenty of resources at his disposal, including a research vessel and a robotic submersible.

Top-notch scientists at small colleges can also count on a fair amount of outside support. The National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture all have grant programs specifically geared toward four-year colleges that don't offer graduate degrees. These grants tend to be smaller than average, but they're large enough to support high-quality research, says Elaine Hoagland, national executive officer of the Council on Undergraduate Research. Depending on the discipline and the current mood of the agencies, these grants can either be very easy or nearly impossible to get, Ms. Hoagland says.

Several foundations have also set aside money for small colleges, including the American Chemical Society, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Research Corporation, and the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation. As a rule, the competition for these grants is relatively mild, Ms. Hoagland says.

Short CV's, Small Salaries

No matter how many grants they manage to snare, very few small-college scientists reach the upper echelons of their fields. For one thing, researchers like Mr. Allison and Mr. Yancey can't count on the hard labor of graduate students and postdocs. And because they devote so many hours to teaching, they just don't have the time to turn their labs into paper mills.

Scientists at small colleges, Ms. Hoagland says, "have to be much more creative with their time." When they do manage to spare a few hours for research, it's usually time well spent. "They won't have as many publications, but the quality of the research can be every bit as high," she says.

Unfortunately, high-quality research doesn't always translate to big paychecks. As a rule, small-college scientists make far less than their colleagues at major universities. Mr. Allison figures his annual shortfall is about $20,000. Then again, it doesn't take a fat university salary to make a comfortable living in Galesburg. "I probably have a much nicer house than my friends in Seattle," he says. "But I sometimes worry what my retirement will be like."

In the real world, there usually isn't much competition for relatively low-paying jobs in places like Walla Walla and Galesburg. But this is academia. "Hiring here is as competitive as anywhere," Mr. Allison says. "We get dozens of applications for every open position." Whitman received well over 100 applications when it advertised for a molecular biologist a few years ago, Mr. Yancey says.

Like most colleges or universities, Whitman and Knox can afford to be choosy. Somewhere in that pile of applications will be the right person for the job: Someone with a fervor for teaching, someone willing to measure his or her career in something other than money or publications. If that sounds like you, a small college may be a perfect fit. If not, you should probably keep thinking big.