LONG RANGE NEEDS FOR OPERATING FUNDS AND LIKELY SOURCES

Although the needs for long-term funding and the likely sources of funds differ in emphasis among IPIA’s areas of excellence and across the University’s three primary missions, the core priority operating needs and sources of funds are evident.

Overall IPIA Long Range Needs for Operating Funds and Likely Sources

Priority Long-Term Needs
- Senior faculty in all departments in CSBS with adequate resources and research support systems, including less-experienced faculty with similar interests, technical support personnel, and graduate assistants;
- administrative research support personnel;
- office and research space for individual faculty members and support personnel;
- space for research, including laboratories and measurement equipment;
- travel expenses for student and faculty exchanges with colleagues across the U.S. and the world;
- funds to bring visiting scholars to the U of U; and
- funds to host conferences and meetings in Utah.

Sources of Long-Term Operating Funds
- Funds allocated to IPIA by the U of U administration;
- income from endowed funds;
- research and program grants from government and private/corporate foundations; and
- gifts.

More details follow below for each of the primary missions and areas of excellence.

Long-Term Needs in the Research Mission

Long-term needs to support successful programs of research in IPIA’s domains are extensive. They include personnel, space, equipment, and travel; for example, faculty researchers, research assistants, professional research personnel, administrative support personnel, and travel to collect data or report findings at conferences. Some types of research also require laboratories, sophisticated measurement equipment, and computers able to store and manipulate large quantities of data.

The most important factor is a core of highly skilled faculty members with records of attracting grants and successfully carrying them out. Thus, the central long-term need is for senior faculty with successful research records in one or more of IPIA’s research domains. This includes endowed chairs and endowed professors. Attracting and retaining these senior faculty members requires endowed chairs, endowed professorships, a full spectrum of technical and administrative research support, resources to organize and host meetings of national and international networks of experts, and help for U of U faculty researchers who participate in expert networks. The costs are high, but the future benefits to students, the University, the community, and beyond are enormous.

The U of U has committed new funds for salaries over seven years that will allow IPIA to recruit and/or buy-out the core senior faculty members with solid research records. IPIA also has received commitments of non-recurring “soft” funds for research support. (See Section IV, “Accomplishments and Activities.”) New major gifts are needed to support research in public policy, applied politics, international social sciences and cross-border security, government, and governance, and they will remain the highest priority for IPIA. Other sources of funds are identified in the discussions of specific research areas below.

Research Needs in Public Policy

A number of faculty members in CSBS and across the main campus and the Health Sciences Center are engaged in policy research or research that informs public policy. Some are highly capable and have attracted grant funding, but they are mostly fragmented and have worked alone or in small teams. These researchers need to be connected and their activities supported, and others with potential need to be brought into networks of faculty with shared research interests. IPIA can be very helpful in making this happen.

Grants are available to support research in public policy from government sources (e.g., National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation) and private or corporate foundations (e.g., Ford Foundation, W. T. Grant Foundation). Some research grants support specific projects (“project grants”) while others support “research capacity building” that expand a university’s ability to conduct policy research in a substantive area (“infrastructure grants” or “center grants”). Grant funds pay many of the costs of conducting research including, for example, research assistants, professional research personnel, travel to collect data or report findings at conferences, and data entry. Grants will not pay the base salary of faculty researchers, but they will pay to “buy out” a portion of faculty members’ time to concentrate on the research, for example by reducing their teaching responsibilities or paying them to do research in summers.

Most government grants also pay “indirect costs” (or “overhead”) to the University that is a negotiated percent of the grant budget. (Most foundation grants do not include overhead or pay only a small percent.) Part of the overhead is returned by the University to the department, center, or institute where the research is conducted, in this case IPIA.

Research Needs in International Social Sciences and Cross-Border Security

Grants are available from governments and foundations in the U.S. and other parts of the world to support research in the areas of international social sciences and cross-border security. Thus, the discussion of grant funding (in “Research in Public Policy” above) is applicable here also. The UofU does not have as much current capacity for research, however. A few faculty members have records of funded research in this area, but it has not been an area of strength. The needs for research in this area are high and funding sources have been expanding. Excellent opportunities exist for IPIA to stimulate research focused in this area, but there are not as many existing strengths at the U of U to build upon.

Research Needs in Applied Politics

Funding sources are not widely available for research in applied politics. A few foundations are interested, but not many. Grants tend to be highly competitive. Government grants are almost non-existent. Contract research funds are available from the public media, political parties, and candidates (See “Long-Term Needs in the Service-to-Communities Mission” below.)

Long-Term Needs in the Teaching Mission

The degree and certificate programs that will be administered by centers and institutes in IPIA (including, for example, the MPA, MPP and the undergraduate minor in campaign management) mostly use courses that are already offered by academic departments (for example, Economics, Sociology, Communication, and Political Science). IPIA has introduced a few integrative seminars for the new degree and certificate programs. Other new courses would be introduced only if academic departments do not. Thus new costs of teaching in IPIA will result from inflation, ordinary growth in number of students, new seminars and other selected new courses in new degree and certificate programs, new and better learning experiences for students, and increased financial aid for students in degree and certificate programs administered by IPIA.

Costs of Ordinary Growth. Undergraduate and graduate enrollments should continue to grow across CSBS in the foreseeable future. Currently, academic departments and programs receive funds each year based on student enrollments the prior year (“Student Credit Hours” or “SCH”). Most of the costs of ordinary growth will be paid through the legislatively funded Student Credit Hours formula, if the U of U continues to use enrollment-driven funding.

Costs of Offering New Seminars and Courses in New Degree and Certificate Programs. Two new programs were approved in 2005 that are administered by IPIA, the Master of Public Policy and the undergraduate minor in applied politics. Other new programs are being considered, including a master degree program with the David Eccles College of Business and the S. J. Quinney College of Law to prepare individuals for careers with international organizations, and a master degree program in campaign management. New degree and certificate programs will require new seminars and possibly selected new courses.

Costs of Enriched Learning Experiences. Many things can be done to enrich students’ learning opportunities including, for example, participation in research projects with faculty, internships in the U.S. and other nations, study abroad, service/learning, use of better instructional technology, and more teaching assistants per student. The University provides some funds to help upgrade instructional technology. The costs of other enriching experiences and learning opportunities will mostly need to be paid from private gifts.

Financial Aid for Students in Degree and Certificate Programs administered by IPIA. Funds to support undergraduate scholarships, graduate fellowships, and undergraduate and graduate teaching assistantships will need to come almost entirely from private gifts.

Long-Term Needs in the Service-to-Communities Mission

IPIA’s primary service-to-communities activities and programs include:

- Conducting applied research projects that provide objective information for the public or decision-makers, such as evaluation studies or policy research for an agency of state government; serving as an information clearing house

- Creating forums for informed discussions and debates on issues of public concern, for example, through the Siciliano Forum and programs organized by the Barbara and Norman Tanner Center for Non-violent Human Rights Advocacy.

- Student and faculty outreach services into the community that provide learning opportunities (for example, Hinckley Institute internships with political campaigns and the state legislature, service/learning placements in nonprofit organizations), and sharing expertise with public benefit organizations such as graduate student or faculty management technical assistance provided to an office of city or county government or a charitable nonprofit organization.

All service-to-community activities have costs including the financial aid our students need in order to participate in internships. Most U of U students work to support themselves and to pay for their education. Few can afford to go a semester or longer without income. Examples of other costs include data collection, analysis and dissemination (such as published reports, newsletters, and web-based information); travel expenses and honoraria to bring experts to Salt Lake City and send U of U experts elsewhere; faculty time to design information collection and dissemination strategies; and graduate assistants to collect, package and disseminate information.

The U of U allocates funding to IPIA’s Center for Public Policy and Administration (CPPA) and the American West Center (AWC) to support some of their outreach services for government and public-serving nonprofit organizations. Government and nonprofit organizations often pay at least part of the cost of applied research and technical assistance projects that they request. Applied research for the general public usually requires donated support from corporations or foundations. IPIA will be able to expand its applied research and technical assistance activities as faculty affiliate with IPIA and become involved with its projects.

Financial aid for student interns through the Hinckley Institute of Politics are financed entirely by donations and income from endowed funds. There are never enough scholarship funds. More annual gifts and endowed scholarships are needed.

The Siciliano Forum brings experts on “the status of the American society” to Salt Lake City annually and makes them available to the community through open lectures and panel discussions, and often also to U of U faculty in smaller exchanges among researchers with similar interests. The Siciliano Forum is funded through annual gifts and will be permanently supported in the future through a generous endowment from the Siciliano family. The Siciliano Forum is an exception, however. IPIA should be organizing and hosting national and international forums and exchanges among experts on a variety of topics. This will require corporation, foundation, and/or endowed funding.

The new Barbara and Norman Tanner Center for Non-violent Human Rights Advocacy will offer programs that introduce University and high school students to methods for resolving disputes that do not include violence.

LONG-TERM CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT NEEDS

Most of the departments, centers, institutes, and programs in CSBS have outgrown their space in largely outdated, tired-out buildings, many with unreliable heating and cooling systems, inadequate electrical sources, and structural problems. Orson Spencer Hall, the Social and Behavioral Science Tower, Stewart Building, Annex, and the Military and Naval Science Buildings are prime examples. It is not uncommon for roofs to leak and sprinkler systems or sewer pipes to burst, destroying papers, books and computer systems. Heating and hot water systems fail in winter and air conditioning systems in summer. Most classrooms were designed for a time when the U of U was on the quarter system rather than the semester system, resulting in a serious shortage of classrooms large enough to accommodate today’s instructional needs. Valiant efforts have been made to update classrooms, but many if not most remain woefully inadequate for instruction in the 21st century.

The departments of Anthropology, Geography, and Psychology have research and teaching laboratories that require special plumbing and/or air circulation systems. Some labs are antiquated, some barely meet health standards, some are in buildings that could not withstand even a slight earth tremor, and some are in a building that is slated for demolition.

IPIA’s rapid growth will continue. New space will be needed for instruction; for offices and research space for staff, faculty, and student researchers; and to house outreach community service programs and meetings. The need for space is becoming critical because of IPIA’s successes.

We need solutions to these long-term space problems, for example:

- Move most classrooms now in OSH and the Social and Behavioral Science Tower to a new building (see the next paragraph below), renovate OSH and the SBS Tower, and move occupants that are not part of CSBS out of OSH and the SBS Tower to other buildings;

- Work with other colleges to build a new “Campus Learning Center” building that frees space for renovation of existing buildings to house departments, centers, institutes, laboratories, faculty offices, and seminar rooms; and

- Reconstruct the Stewart Building or find space in a different building for the Anthropology Department and its laboratories.

SOURCES OF FUNDS FOR CAPITAL IMPROVEMENTS

The only sources of funds for capital improvements that are reasonably possible are:

- State Legislated Capital Appropriations. This requires the U of U and the Board of Regents to designate a building or renovation project as its highest priority for legislated funding, a commitment of substantial external funding to supplement the appropriation, and legislative action.

The U of U has given the campus learning center building highest priority for legislative funding in 2007. The U of U and CSBS continue to argue that the State Legislature has the obligation to provide basic instructional space. It is not reasonable to ask private donors to support the construction or renovation of basic classrooms needed to teach regular courses for undergraduate students. CSBS and IPIA will continue to work with U of U administrators, other colleges, the office of the Commissioner of Higher Education, and legislators to obtain funding for adequate classrooms. Securing funds from the State Legislature, however, is difficult, slow, and highly political.

- Private Donations. Individuals, families, corporations, and private foundations are the most likely sources of funds for capital improvements needed to support IPIA’s areas of excellence across the three primary missions.