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NASULGC National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges 



April 2. 1993 



The Honorable Charles W. Stenholm 



Chairman 



Subcommittee on Department Operations and Nutrition 



Committee on Agriculture 



1301 Longworth House Office Building 



U.S. House of Representatives 



Washington, DC 20515 



Dear Mr. Chairman: 



I appreciated the opportunity to represent the Academic Programs 

 Section of the Board on Agriculture, NASULGC before your 

 Subcommittee on Department Operations and Nutrition. We also 

 greatly appreciate this opportunity to respond to the written 

 questions you submitted at the close of the hearings. The two 

 questions are timely, important and closely related. I would like 

 to answer each question specifically and then provide an 

 overarching answer that addresses the full import of both 

 questions . 



QUESTION #1. How does adequate funding for both basic and applied 

 research affect the production of your most important commodity - 

 Students? (your emphasis) . 



As you well know, the designation between basic and applied 

 research is in many cases arbitrary. This is especially so in a 

 discipline such as agriculture which is inherently applied. Hiring 

 faculty to teach and research with either an interest in basic or 

 applied research in and of itself causes no problem for the 

 teaching program if the faculty, college and university have a 

 strong commitment to the education of students. In almost all 

 cases the strength of this commitment is directly related to the 

 emphasis of the reward system. If the faculty reward system is 

 skewed excessively toward research the production of our most 

 important commodity is certainly affected. 



QUESTION #2. Do you feel that our Land Grant Universities spend 

 relatively too little or too much on teaching programs compared to 

 research and extension? 



Universities spend large amounts of money on their teaching 

 programs. Many feel this sum must be increased. However, when it 

 is compared to the amount allocated by universities for research 

 and extension, it is probably appropriate, although one must note 



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