Path: utzoo!lsuc!lake.scar!radio.astro!helios!dooley
From: dooley@helios.toronto.edu (Kevin Dooley)
Newsgroups: ut.general
Subject: Administrative Pork Barrel (was Re: Strike)
Message-ID: <747@helios.toronto.edu>
Date: 16 Mar 89 14:41:56 GMT
References: <737@helios.toronto.edu> <89Mar9.140218est.9394@ois.db.toronto.edu> <1989Mar10.161738.19609@utzoo.uucp> <89Mar13.102317est.9395@ois.db.toronto.edu> <744@helios.toronto.edu> <89Mar15.114025est.9395@ois.db.toronto.edu>
Reply-To: dooley@helios.UUCP (Kevin Dooley)
Organization: University of Toronto Physics/Astronomy/CITA
Lines: 59

In article <89Mar15.114025est.9395@ois.db.toronto.edu> jdd@db.toronto.edu ("John D. DiMarco") writes:
>In article <744@helios.toronto.edu> dooley@helios.UUCP (Kevin Dooley) writes:
>>This is the key problem.  The university has an enormous budget,
>>a budget which could easily be used to hire more faculty and more
>>TAs, a budget which could easily be used to further the cause of
>>education on this campus.  Far too small a fraction of it actually
>>winds up being used for that, though.  Underfunding is an issue,
>>but budget allocation is perhaps a more serious issue.
>Is there any evidence that allocation is as severe a problem as you allege?
>What are the figures? How do you know that the administration is keeping
>for themselves a larger slice of the budgetary pie than they should keep?

I suggest that you refer to the U of T Faculty Association for the figures.
This has always been the principal plank in their platform for reduced
class sizes.  U of T is not alone in this issue.  Budget allocation
has been a source of complaint at every university I have ever seen.
It is a disease which grows as the university itself grows.  The problem
is not, of course, which is isolated to Simcoe Hall.  Take instead the
example of computing services.  There was a terrific campaign to get
the Cray supercomputer here in the physics building.  Now it is being
desperately underutilized.  How many millions were wasted by this
poor allocation of funds?  I know that the counter argument is that
this money would not have even come to U of T if it didn't come in
that form, so it was not so much a waste of U of T budget as a waste
of Ontario taxpayers money.  Nonetheless, it was a stupid misallocation
of funds.  (Does George Luste read ut.general ;->)
	The bill for Dr. Connell's office renovations was considerably less
than the bill for the Cray.  Even if we consider both in isolation, it
is no big deal.  What's a couple of million dollars anyway?  However
these events are not in isolation.  Every issue of every campus
newspaper contains reports of new and more flagrant ways that people
(not always from Simcoe Hall either) have diverted money away from
research and education and into what I shall generically refer to as
'The Administrative Pork Barrel'.  Certainly we ARE underfunded, but
my point is that we could do much better with what we have!
	Now consider the governmental point of view.  They are being asked
to shell out ever increasing amounts of money into an ever deepening
pork barrel.  This university has to smarten up or we may risk the
kind of funding backlash which nearly closed down UBC not too very
long ago.  Funding is a two way street.  Nobody can reasonably
expect that every funding decision will turn out for the best.  For
example, I really thought that the Cray was a good idea at first.
The government expects the occasional accidental misallocation, but
I refer you back to any given issue of any given campus paper to
stress my point that it is not the occasional accidental misallocation
which is the problem.
	Now I am very sure that I have offended a large number of people.
You will all notice that I have altered the subject line so as to
start a new and fresh debate.  Anybody who has anything intelligent 
to add on the subject of internal funding is welcome to join the
debate lest ut.general slip back into a sleepy forum for apartments
wanted.

Kevin Dooley

-- 
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