SportsTurf provides current, practical and technical content on issues relevant to sports turf managers, including facilities managers. Most readers are athletic field managers from the professional level through parks and recreation, universities.
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/409813
www.stma.org November 2014 | SportsTurf 35 some are adapting. For example, The Lawn Institute allows IDC (rate not stated), but pro- hibits paying university faculty salaries. Similarly, the recent United States Golf Association (USGA) request for proposals states, "Overhead and administrative costs shall be held to an absolute minimum, but will not exceed 16 percent. The USGA will not support overhead or administrative costs for grants of $10,000 or less." Other industry groups have yet to adapt. The Environmental Institute for Golf, the philanthropic organization of the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America, does not allow IDC. Each university has its own policy on what it will or will not accept. At the University of Florida, central administration "charges" the Florida Agricultural Experiment Station 11 percent for all grants, meaning that any grant with IDC less than 11% actually costs the experiment station. These costs are taken from the IDC pool, which essentially means that funding entities that agree to IDC are covering for those who will not pay the IDC. These are real dollars with real accounting principles applied; it's not just a money trail seen on paper. Faculties report reduction in university support While grants are increasingly difficult to obtain, a concurrent reduction in support from universities is also being felt. In a recent survey of turfgrass faculty from across the United States conducted as part of preparing for this article, 63% of respondents indicated that their institution's financial support had decreased in the past five years while 19% indicated their support had remained the same. More than 81% of respondents indicated a reduction in operating dollars and three out of four turfgrass professors have seen cuts to their technical sup- port staff funding. Two-thirds also reported that their travel budgets were reduced. not all science journals count Scientific journals are now judged and given an "impact factor," which is a measure of the relative importance of a journal. Journals with large circulation generally have higher impact factors than those where turfgrass sci- entists publish their applied research results. Applied Turfgrass Science, a science journal for turfgrass practitioners, does not even have an impact factor. This has caused some scientists to avoid publishing in that outlet. Journals with low impact factors are viewed negatively and turfgrass scientists are discouraged from publishing in them. Turfgrass producers ulti- mately miss out by not receiving high quality, practical information generated from scientific research studies. diFFiculty Funding grad programs A third area of concern involves the placement of graduate students following completion of their degrees. Graduate stu- dent placement is being scrutinized by some university administrators wanting to see other universities hiring their students. Unfortunately, very few academic positions have become available in recent years, and the number of students vying for those positions is high. Additionally, many universities no longer provide tuition waivers or graduate assistant- ships. Consequently, university researchers must secure grants to cover the full cost of their graduate students. These costs range from $80,000 for a Master of Science student to nearly $200,000 for a PhD student. Considering the fact that most commod- ity groups and industry associations cap their grants at $5,000 to $30,000, it is increasingly difficult to fund graduate student education in today's academic environment. Unfortunately, very few academic positions have become available in recent years, and the number of students vying for those positions is high.