Professor Christine Daigle
“Gimme the money honey!”
Brock is a good place to be. Any administrator would replace “good” by “great”. Okay, I will grant you that only if you give me the money, honey!
Brock is on the path to becoming a comprehensive university. As we all know, this entails an emphasis on research. Faculty members are expected to be more productive research-wise, that is, to present papers, publish articles and books, among other things. In order for that to happen, research must be possible. In an effort to help faculty be more productive, there has been a reduction in teaching load so as to free time for research (the 2-2 load will finally be effective next year in the Humanities). That is all very well and welcome. The Office of Research Services has also been proactive in supporting faculty members applying for grants. Their personnel have been of great help to both myself and to others and they are to be applauded for their great work. Colleagues at Brock, in and out of your own department, also make for good supporters and will help you out when you need it (in my case, no less than 4 colleagues have assisted me before for grant applications). This all together makes for a great supportive environment. One needs that in order to flourish as a researcher. However, I contend that there is a crucial ingredient missing and that the cake cannot rise in the current situation unless we do change the recipe and introduce the missing ingredient: money!
Consider the tiny professional development account we have at our disposal: 1300$ per academic year to cover all kind of costs. Alright, you can apply for internal grants of all kinds but these funds are limited and one has to devote quite a bit of “research time” to applications if one hopes to get any funding. Shouldn’t that time be devoted to research per se? And what about start-up funds1? I have been shocked (and prompted to write this) by the amounts of funding colleagues receive in other universities to start up their research program (and I am not talking about the filthy rich universities, although I am talking mostly, but not only, about comprehensive universities ). In addition to both their start-up funds and their professional development funds (both of which are often triple what we receive at Brock), they also have access to start-up grants which I have seen as high as $7000. The universities that give this kind of money to their faculty members know very well that this is money well invested. Faculty members use it for research that leads to conferences and publications and the obtaining of the much-desired external grants that are so hard to obtain (Brock’s success rate is low, one wonders why). Faculty members use the money to hire students as research assistants thus providing them with the training they will need in their future career. They also use the money to travel to conferences to present the result of their work and interact with colleagues abroad, forming webs of research-contacts. This is all very important. I doubt anyone will contest any of these points.
Brock wants to become a comprehensive university. Very well. We all want to participate in that (I think). At least I do. But even with the money that is available to us via professional development, start-up funds, and internal grants, I contend that we fall short of any acceptable level of funding. We are thus placed under much strain, having to produce with little means to do it. Another consideration is the retention of new faculty. Brock wants to attract creative minds that will contribute to its blossoming as a comprehensive university. It has to understand that it must be competitive in what it offers to its new faculty so that they come to Brock in the first place and decide to stay.
A colleague once said to me that all one needs really to do research in the Humanities is a pen and paper. I don’t agree with that. It might be that the administration has had this in mind for a long time, keeping our research funding at such a low level. However, a quick glance at any budget submitted for internal grants shows a very different picture. Money is needed for all that I have delineated above and for the purchase of books (did someone just think “library”? Come on! Here is another funding issue!), purchase of specialized CD-ROMs and other devices, etc. Faculty at Brock are involved in all kind of innovative and creative research that requires money to fund it. The move to becoming comprehensive requires rethinking the funding of research. I say: Give me the money honey!
Dr. Christine Daigle
Assistant Professor
Philosophy Department
Brock University