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Method -> RE: Comments from Uncommondescent Posts (6/19/2008 10:01:53 PM)
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More on Gonzalez. quote:
The same day Geoffroy denied Gonzalez's tenure appeal, the Des Moines Register published a story stating Gonzalez had only attracted $22,661 in external research grants since arriving at ISU. During an interview with The Tribune this summer, Gonzalez countered that claim, saying he has brought in more. He said shortly before he left the University of Washington to come to ISU, he received, and brought much with him, a three-year, $58,000 grant he used to write his book "The Privileged Planet" and a five-year, $64,000 NASA grant, which he used to pay a doctoral student at the University of Washington. Then, as his tenure documents were at the provost level for review, he received promise of a five-year, $50,000 grant from the Discovery Institute. Although it is more than the Des Moines Register originally reported, it was still far below that of the average $1.3 million in research funding the newspaper found tenured faculty in the physics and astronomy department had generated during their first six years before receiving tenure. There was no mention of research funding during the press conference or in the packets provided by the institute. When asked following the press conference about the disparity, Luskin said research funding was not specifically stated in the guidelines required for tenure and therefore he believed it should not have been a factor in his tenure denial. "Astronomers do not need the kind of grant funding to do research that, say, a physicist does," he said. "All you really need is travel time to go to the observatory, permission to go to the observatory and a PC computer to crunch some numbers." But Gonzalez said during his interview with The Tribune last summer that he was told, beginning with his three-year tenure review in 2004, that he needed to bring in more research funding. He added he heard the same message in reviews every year since, as well. He has made the effort, he said, submitting two grant applications per year, but to no avail. So Gonzalez knew beforehand that his lack of funding was a problem, and he was told that by more than one person. What many people don't understand is the way in which a graduate program works. Graduate students are paid a stipend of 20k-25k. This comes from grant money. The department also needs money for upkeep of existing equipment and upgrades. This too comes from research grants. Gonzalez's attempts to downplay the importance of research money is cute, but way off.
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