Busy work

I take issue with certain aspects of administrations in univeristies at times. Obviously, there is historically various battles between different areas of colleges and univeristies, be it undergraduates, graduate students, post-docs, faculty, or administration. Everyone thinks that what they are doing is vital to the success of the university, and in many ways that is absolutely true.

However, as institutions grow, or decide they must add this or that program, there are quite a few issues that arise. For example, there are many departments on a university campus which are overstaffed, or just plain not needed. Or, if they are, they haven't much to occupy their average day, so they come up with busy work.

Case in point: I applied (and received) an internal grant for summer funding to work on my research. Obviously such internal grants aren't highly competitive, but still, I am sure that some people did not receive the grant (note though, that being a new faculty member definitely gave me priority over others, I am sure). To get this grant, as in other cases, I had to write a five page proposal justifying it, and yadda yadda yadda.

One of the requirements of accepting this grant was to attend three two-hour sessions hosted by whatever-the-name-of-this-particular-department-is, all about "How to write a successful grant proposal."

In other words, those who succeeded in obtaining this grant are the ones who must attend these seminars, wasting six hours of the summer. I know external grants are much more competitive, and that this department is very useful if one wants assistance in writing such proposals, but given that this is largely all they do, there is obviously a lot of free time to kill. And they take it out on us. (Shouldn't those who did not get the grant sit through this?)

Ironically, most of the faculty in my group are associate professors who have obtained many other grants in the past, so it is even more of a waste for them.

But this happens when the adminstration grows so much that there are too many departments focussing on such small aspects of the university. I like that there are sources for assistance whenever I need it, however there is no need to waste my time unnecessarily. Luckily I will be finished with these next week, so it's all good.