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THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR CELL BIOLOGY

CHAPTER 9 • EXPLORING VENUES FOR SCIENCE 91

The level of support for such things as

facilities, equipment and money for con-

sumables varies widely from school to

school. The more exclusive liberal arts col-

leges have more money. “It’s the cash-

strapped privates and the old teachers’ col-

leges or branch campuses that have these

sorts of [funding] issues,” observes Deborah

Cook of Clark Atlanta University in Atlanta,

Georgia. Of the faculty polled, start-up

funds were reported from high four-figure

amounts to a comparatively generous

$50,000. Continuing funds are often

obtained by intramural competitive propos-

als for small amounts of $1,000 to as much as

the low five figures. Clearly, very little in the

way of equipment can be bought for such

amounts while still allowing anything left

over for experiments, so obtaining equip-

ment is often left as a complicated dance

with administration. My first Director of

Academic Affairs was a historian, and the

figures I quoted for laboratory equipment

boggled his mind. “Faculty at smaller insti-

tutions are caught in a frustrating cycle

when competing for external support: review-

ers often respond to such requests by indi-

cating that the item should be provided by

one’s institution. But the institution

depends on faculty to get equipment by

writing grants!”, notes Cynthia Galloway of

Texas A&M’s Kingsville campus. Fortunately,

more grants for smaller institutions are

being offered both by the NIH and the NSF.

An old standby for obtaining equipment is

to write a grant for educational purposes

and use it during non-class time for your

research.

Personnel

If you like hands-on science, small colleges

may be the perfect opportunity, because usu-

ally there is no one else around to do the

work. Unless you manage to get a major

grant with money for a technician, the most

consistent workforce for the lab is under-

graduate students. Some places may have

master’s degree programs, but the majority

do not. “You need to pick [undergraduates]

out early and grow them up,” half-jokes

Cruz. Of course it takes a lot of time to train

and supervise undergraduates; often just

when they become productive, they move on.

Many institutions have student stipends to

support research during the school year or

over the summer. A consistent comment was

that research must be divided into small, dis-

crete, do-able units that the students can han-

dle within the school calendar. Despite the

difficulties, working with undergraduates

can prove invigorating.

Isolation and Alienation

“So when are you going to get a real job?”

“You aren’t planning on staying there, are

you?” These questions are familiar to small-

school faculty. How does the ego handle the

perception by some colleagues that taking a

job at a small institution is opting out of sci-

ence, failing, or even worse? The answer is

Fortunately, more grants for

smaller institutions are being

offered both by the NIH and

the NSF.

Research must be divided into

small, discrete, do-able units

that the students can handle

within the school calendar.