BASIC RESEARCH AND THE PRIVATE UNIVERSITY 



campus. Thus we are enabled to preserve the condition of free 

 access to all parts of the campus by faculty and students, 

 which we regard as a precious asset not to be relinquished 

 except in times of extreme emergency. 



Financing. Research Program 



How, then, is our basic research program financed? 



Here again it must be emphasized that in our case the size 

 of the faculty is determined by the total funds that are available 

 rather than by the number of students to be taken care of. 

 Nevertheless, our able research staff does have an insatiable 

 appetite for more research funds and for continually expanding 

 research programs. Hence, the problems of financing the rapidly 

 rising costs of research and the rapidly growing program are 

 severe indeed. 



It may be of interest to list our sources of support. In listing 

 them I shall list support for both teaching and research, for 

 I do not know how to determine at Caltech how many pennies 

 of each dollar go to teaching and how many to research. This 

 is not because our bookkeeping department is inefficient, but 

 only because we purposely mix the two activities so thoroughly 

 that separate budgeting is impossible even in principle. 



Out of a total campus budget of $9 million (in 1957-58), 

 endowment income provided 32 per cent; gifts and grants from 

 nongovernment sources provided 20 per cent; government 

 grants and contracts (including overhead) provided 35 per 

 cent; and tuition and other sources provided 1 3 per cent. During 

 the past ten years the total budget has doubled. The percentage 

 (but not total volume) of government funds has declined (from 

 41 to 35 per cent), and of private gifts has risen (from 13.5 to 

 20 per cent), and the others have remained nearly constant. 

 We hope and expect that these various sources of support will 

 retain the present relative positions in the future, that is, in 



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