Several of the fanciest of the fancy universities in the United States have sent Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., a message: When it comes to pork, we're strictly kosher.
Coburn, chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Financial Management Subcommittee, has been asking higher education institutions about how they use federal appropriations -- particularly earmarks.
Many of the nation's largest -- and presumably wealthiest -- universities said they frown upon, discourage and even reject earmarks. On the other hand, many smaller schools grab all the cash they can.
"Earmarked funds, while a relatively quick source of research funding, have a potentially corrosive effect on the scientific research capabilities of our national research institutions," Claude Canizares, MIT's vice president for research, said in his response. "Fair, merit-based competition for research funding forces scientists and institutions to consistently submit their ideas and methods to a rigorous evaluation process."
That's easy to say when you're MIT.
Neither Harvard nor Yale seek earmarks and, for the most part, do not allow faculty to seek them. And get this: "We also have declined offers of direct appropriations from Members of Congress," Dorothy Robinson, a Yale vice president and general counsel, said in her letter to Coburn.
Turning down an earmark? Pure heresy! Robinson admitted that, despite the university's efforts, a faculty member occasionally has slipped through the cracks and gotten an earmark on his or her own. Imagine that!
The University of Michigan is another one that would make a porker choke. "It is general practice not to seek or accept congressionally directed or earmarked funds when inadvertently secured by individual faculty," wrote Stephen Forrest, the university's vice president for research. The university, however, has accepted a few earmarks, he said.
But for every Yale, Harvard, MIT and other high-and-mighty rich school with a huge endowment and lots and lots of wealthy alumni, there's another university that needs cold, hard cash.
Take the University of Montana. "As a small institution in a state with a small population, we have many unmet needs in terms of research infrastructure," President George Dennison said in his letter. "To deal with that need, we have, on a regular basis asked our congressional delegation to help us so that we better serve the students, business, and citizens of Montana that depend on a well-equipped and well-staffed University."
Montana State University President Geoffrey Gamble wrote that his institution relies on the competitive process for most of its federal funds, but that there always are "unique circumstances, special situations and limited-interest areas" where earmarks are useful.
Gamble said Montana State now has external grants and contracts exceeding $100 million a year. "We believe that most of this increase is the result of a growing recognition of the research excellence on our campus and the work which our researchers are doing," he contended.
Excuse me, Mr. President. But don't you think the fact that Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., is a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee and is extremely proud of being someone who brings pork back to the state has something to do with the millions and millions of dollars that are being thrown around your campus?
An official at George Mason University attempted to blow off Coburn. The school works closely with Virginia Republican Sens. John Warner and George Allen, J. Thomas Hennessey Jr., the school's chief of staff, states in his letter. And the two senators have systems for reviewing earmarks. Given that process, "it would seem most appropriate for your request to be directed to either of your colleagues in the Senate ... or to the Senate Appropriations Committee which approves all earmarking requests," Hennessey wrote.
And in response to a question about specific goals of programs receiving federal money, Hennessey wrote, "It would require an extraordinary commitment of time and resources on the part of the university administration to gather the information you request."
Coburn plans to hold hearings and particularly wants answers from schools that did not reply to his letter.
"If colleges and universities who have not responded do not respond to this request promptly they may have an opportunity to explain their lack of a response to my subcommittee in a public hearing," Coburn said in a statement when he released the letters. "If universities do not have this data or cannot provide it to Congress in a timely fashion that may reflect a serious management problem within universities which also should be addressed." Ouch!
If they don't come equipped with the data, the presidents had better have a good excuse. Maybe they can survey their professors for some of the best excuses they've heard from students. Somehow, though, Coburn probably won't buy the old "My dog ate my response" excuse.
