Jane, I'm at a much smaller place than you--we submit about 80 proposal per year--so I'm sure that we don't face the deadline crunches that you do. Still, I'm a one-person Grants Office, so when 2-3 proposals come in at the same time, as sometimes happens before the CCLI deadline, for instance, the pressure is on.  But I made a conscious decision years ago not to make any arbitrary deadlines.  Here's my reasoning:

1. Where I am, the most important function of the Grants Office is to stimulate more and better grant proposals.  We're an undergraduate institution where research has never been emphasized.  Establishing the Grants Office some years ago was part of the institution's effort to increase faculty research and scholarly activity.  For me to create rules and deadlines which might discourage faculty from writing/submitting proposals would be counter-productive--our teaching-oriented culture places enough barriers in place already.

2. My own job performance is judged in large measure by the numbers of proposals we submit and grants we receive.  From that perspective, it would be stupid for me to turn someone with a proposal in hand away from my door.

So I ask folks to give me at least a couple of days to review budgets and obtain institutional signatures, but if they show up just before the deadline I'll do whatever I can do to get their proposals out the door.  I frequently race to the post office with express mail packages, just before closing time.  (But if we miss that close, I make the PI drive the package to the nearest airport with a 24 hr. postoffice, 30 miles away.  That's only happened once.)

Have I ever turned anyone away?  Yes indeed, though never just because of time pressures.  For instance, one faculty wanted to submit a proposal her dean didn't like much, so she waited until the last minute in hopes that I'd sneak it through without the dean's approval.  Nope--I called the dean, she said no, so we didn't submit.

This policy works well for us.  We're small enough that rules matter less than the folks one works with.  And, given our institutional culture, it seems important to be perceived as a helpful office which will do whatever it can for faculty/staff, rather than a gatekeeping office with rules that are perceived as arbitrary.

However, I understand that different (especially larger) institutions with different cultures (especially institutions with cultures oriented more towards research) need different procedures--so please don't take this post as a counterargument to some of the others.

Regards, Bill

Bill Campbell
Director, Grants & Research
University of Wisconsin-River Falls
715/425-3195
xxxxxx@uwrf.edu

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