I hope all these university freezes are buying time to regroup and figure out how to keep fulfilling our mission in a (possibly permanent) new environment. I fear we’re delusional and treating this as a temporary shock like a recession that we just need to ride out until things get back to normal. - ThreadSky

keithschnak.bsky.social • 3 days ago

I hope all these university freezes are buying time to regroup and figure out how to keep fulfilling our mission in a (possibly permanent) new environment. I fear we’re delusional and treating this as a temporary shock like a recession that we just need to ride out until things get back to normal.

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blibgober.bsky.social•3 days ago

The austerity will continue until morale improves.

aoeverhart.bsky.social•3 days ago

Does all of the stuff over the last few weeks have a lot of bearing on the average political science department? I assumed you would be mostly supported by tuition dollars and that those dollars aren't threatened, but I seem to learn something new about university financing every day in 2025.

prisonrodeo.bsky.social•3 days ago

It can matter a lot. A past institution of mine's policy was: You get a grant, central admin takes half the IDCs, sends the rest to the dean, who takes half of that and sends the rest to the PI. So I'd get 25% of my indirects in a slush fund with every grant I got. 1/3

prisonrodeo.bsky.social•3 days ago

$100K direct-costs grant + 50% IDCs meant $12.5K for me to do with as I pleased. That mattered a lot for things like grad student summer funding and conference travel, and was a great incentive to write grants. 2/3

prisonrodeo.bsky.social•3 days ago

Where I am currently we bring in the most NSF $ of any department in my college not named "psychology." Grants pay for a lot of things we wouldn't otherwise have and do. YMMV, etc. 3/3

mikecrespin.bsky.social•3 days ago

25% of IDC returned to the PI is huge. We aren't even close to that. I think the VPR might take 80%. It could be more. Some eventually trickles down to the unit and I'm not sure if the PI is guaranteed any.

prisonrodeo.bsky.social•3 days ago

It seemed bonkers to me but I was like “🤷‍♂️ [writes another grant]”

Meanwhile, my current institution does things like making course buyouts cost a percentage of PI salary, which… has exactly the opposite effect.

keithschnak.bsky.social•3 days ago

I try not to learn how the university is run but our budget is pretty responsive to the budget of all of arts and sciences and the university at large, as opposed to just what we bring in

keithschnak.bsky.social•3 days ago

Not to me a doomer but it’s good to be aware that one possibility is that universities will be under attack from now on but what we do is good for the world and we still need to do it.

keithschnak.bsky.social•3 days ago

*not to BE

abhw.bsky.social•3 days ago

i dont think this is doomerism, i think this is realistic optimism - the idea that there is a path forward (even if difficult) and a case to be made seems like a good outlook to me.

brendannyhan.bsky.social•3 days ago

what would we do differently, though? serious question

keithschnak.bsky.social•3 days ago

It’s a good question and I would not have much faith in my own concrete answers, just hoping the people who actually do know how to run a university (not me) are in the right frame of mind haha

garlicksauce.bsky.social•3 days ago

2 ideas
1) Several disciplines are going to have to deal with the reality of hard money. Even when soft money flows again, they found a soft target in the indirect costs.
2) Higher ed needs to behave as an industry, not a public service above the fray, and lobby policymakers and the public as such

albertsonb2.bsky.social•3 days ago

right - as in, are there going to be jobs for ph.d. students in American universities?

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