Proper balance

In resisting the temptation to shut down the flow of scarce dollars for research sabbaticals, the State Board of Regents made the right call last week.

It's not difficult to understand why some officials considered axing professional development awards, which support faculty members who take time off from teaching to conduct research.

State budget cuts have sliced more than $60 million from budgets at the Regents universities. More reductions are likely on the way as the state wrestles with big budget woes, so it makes sense to search for areas to trim.

But cutting off all funding for outside research and development opportunities would have been a shortsighted path to savings.

Research, clearly, is at the heart of our state universities' mission and is a measure of their vitality. Information gathered during assignments feeds new advances, fills textbooks and lays the groundwork for further research. Grant proposals are developed, new works of art are created and faculty members can test their ideas in the real world beyond the confines of a campus.

Faculty members, the institution, students and ultimately the state benefit. The fruits of research are among returns we expect from large investment in higher education.

Eliminating all awards would have jeopardized those benefits, and may have made an already difficult job of recruiting and retaining quality faculty even more difficult.

Still, there will be belt-tightening with regard to development awards. And that's appropriate.

Iowa's three state universities requested 114 professional development awards during the next budget year, fiscal 2011. That's down substantially from 143 last year and 161 two years ago. The University of Iowa requested 56 awards, nearly half of the 100 awards sought two years ago.

“A very high bar has been set, perhaps the highest bar in recent memory ...,” Regents President David Miles told a Gazette reporter of the pared-down list of requests that received regents support.

Finding savings to get through current budget troubles is important. But it should not sacrifice research that could help chart the universities and the state's future. We think the regents struck the proper balance.