Money, It's a Gas

The American novelist Edith Wharton once said, "The only way not to think about money is to have a great deal of it."  So true. And because the state of Georgia doesn't have it, and private donors don't have it, and people who pay for tuition don't have it -- we're all thinking about it.

Grady College faculty had our meeting with the new provost of the university today, and it was pretty much all about money. The university wants to recruit more graduate students -- partly for the money. We'd like to improve the diversity of the faculty and student body -- but it's hard to do without money. UGARF (the research foundation) is pretty much out of -- you guessed it -- money. State funding of this "public" university has gone from 48% to 34% in a very short amount of time, and there's no reason to think that will change anytime soon. Oh, and by the way, what will happen when the state's stimulus money is gone after FY11?

We're all learning to do more with less, but at what point is it no longer possible to do good enough with less than enough? I'm not blaming anyone, although I've had good times on Twitter and Facebook poking fun of the state on our furlough days this year. I'm just sad to see the consequences of a poor economy beginning to enter the classroom.

Comments

[books]

everyone's learning to do more with less at the moment. looking at the bright side: we may have gotten out of the recession and things may be looking up.

[richard]

they could double parking fees to bring in additional revenue.... or eliminate wasteful spending. cause sad as it is to say, that happens a good bit even in down economic times.

[Karen Russell]

Doubled parking fees come out of my pocket, too. :P