SUPPORT FROM GOVERNMENT 



ant dreams before the war. The pattern for military research had 

 become the pattern for basic research also; their productive 

 scholarship could not come to full blossom in the old pattern. 

 Many of the institutions also had come to regard large funds 

 as essential to doing research. This may have been a reaction 

 to the difficulty of reducing budgets. Even the government 

 finds such reduction impossible. The changed attitudes, with 

 general recognition that the prewar, leisurely pace in research 

 no longer measured up to the postwar needs, made the shift in 

 fiscal responsibility from universities to government inevitable. 

 On balance, research activities have substantially grown in 

 volume under the new conditions. 



In mentioning that many institutions work assiduously to 

 secure government contracts for specified services, no criticism 

 is intended. Where the work fits the special aptitudes of faculty 

 personnel, and where it contributes measurably to improvement 

 in the performance of a department in its duties to the students, 

 such a contract is advantageous. It is best suited for departments 

 which normally are concerned with the more practical aspects 

 of science, such as engineering and medicine. Such a contract, 

 with little or no emphasis on basic research, is one kind of 

 government support. It makes available some uncommitted 

 money for indirect costs, the kind of money urgently needed. 

 This can, however, become a strong inducement for institutions 

 to seek contracts for work which they would not consider at all, 

 were their own funds adequate to allow them complete freedom 

 of action. 



If a proposed contract for specified services were to become 

 the responsibility of a department of basic science, questions 

 would arise which university administrations surely would have 

 to ask themselves. Such a department has equal status with 

 others in the liberal arts group in advancing and disseminating 

 knowledge valued for its cultural aspects. Would such a contract 



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