I wholeheartedly agree.  I found this recent exchange interesting and informative. Marjorie
On Jan 27, 2011, at 11:54 AM, Maggie Pyle wrote:

Dialogue, including opinion, is stimulating and often informative. We should welcome and encourage all forms of communication.

>>> Rhea Williamson <xxxxxx@CSUEASTBAY.EDU<mailto:xxxxxx@CSUEASTBAY.EDU>> 01/27/11 10:11 AM >>>
I prefer that this site not be used for opinionbit rather research
guidance and assistance.

Sent from my iPhone

On Jan 27, 2011, at 7:53 AM, "Cappellucci, James E." <xxxxxx@partners.org<mailto:xxxxxx@partners.org>
> wrote:

> Surely you jest.
>
>
> ________________________________
>
> From: Research Administration List on behalf of Charles Hathaway
> Sent: Wed 1/26/2011 11:16 PM
> To: xxxxxx@lists.healthresearch.org<mailto:xxxxxx@lists.healthresearch.org>
> Subject: Re: [RESADM-L] items of interest in President Obama's State
> of the
> Union speech (last night)
>
>
>
> I think research administrators should be interested in how the
> federal govt
> balances its budget because we live in a country facing long-term
> financial
> disaster and not because the policy changes might have a short-term
> impact on
> our particular line of work.  Cut all budgets.  Raise all taxes.
>
> Charlie
> ________________________________________
> From: Research Administration List [RESADM-
> xxxxxx@lists.healthresearch.org] on behalf
> of Paul Tuttle [xxxxxx@JUNO.COM]
> Sent: Wednesday, January 26, 2011 5:41 PM
> To: xxxxxx@lists.healthresearch.org<mailto:xxxxxx@lists.healthresearch.org>
> Subject: [RESADM-L] items of interest in President Obama's State of
> the Union
> speech (last night)
>
> [Full text and video are available at
> http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/25/obama-state-of-the-union-_1_n_813478.ht
> ml.]
>
> Colleagues,
>
> I don't know whether you watched President Obama's State of the
> Union speech
> last night.  From my perspective, there were several statements
> pertinent to
> research administrators, particularly university research
> administrators.
>
> First was "an investment in research and development" in certain key
> areas--biomedical research, information technology, clean energy,
> etc.--all
> encapsulated within a focus on innovation.
>
> Second was a focus on educational reform based on the premise that
> secondary and
> postsecondary education are both significant drivers of innovation.
>
> Third was a promised review of government regulations in order to
> reduce and/or
> eliminate unnecessary burdens on businesses.  (A side note: One
> could argue that
> higher education should be relieved of certain kinds of unnecessary
> burdens as
> well, especially considering that immediately prior to this section
> of his
> speech, President Obama recognized our nation's colleges and
> universities as
> vitally important innovation engines.)
>
> Fourth was a proposed five-year domestic spending freeze.
> (President Obama's
> freeze would be at a different level from levels suggested by his
> political
> rivals on the Republican side of the aisle; no matter which level is
> selected,
> though, a domestic spending freeze would appear to result in effective
> stagnation of funding levels in many federal funding programs.)
>
> Fifth was his promise that his administration "will develop a
> proposal to merge,
> consolidate, and reorganize the federal government" to develop a
> more efficient
> government (I'm paraphrasing the ideas around this quote).  His
> examples were of
> multiple federal agencies that have similar or identical mission
> components
> and/or areas of responsibility.  This has obvious implications for
> certain
> federal funding programs, especially when considered as relatively
> broad
> categories such as "health" or "education."
>
> His sixth and final point that to my mind may affect research
> administrators is
> his promise to veto any bills that include earmarks.
>
> Please keep in mind that this is just my personal opinion of the
> statements
> President Obama made in last night's State of the Union speech that
> I felt may
> affect us research administrators.  Still, I thought these
> statements were
> significant enough to be extracted and discussed on professional
> listservs like
> this one.
>
> Best,
>
> Paul Tuttle
> xxxxxx@juno.com<mailto:xxxxxx@juno.com> or (336) 692-3289 [cell]
>
>
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Instructions on how to use the RESADM-L Mailing List, including
subscription information and a web-searchable archive, are available
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"LISTSERV" link in the upper right corner)
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====================================================================== Instructions on how to use the RESADM-L Mailing List, including subscription information and a web-searchable archive, are available via our web site at http://www.healthresearch.org<http://www.healthresearch.org/> (click on the "LISTSERV" link in the upper right corner) ======================================================================

Marjorie Forster
Assistant Vice President, Research and
Global Health Initiatives
Office of Research and Development
University of Maryland Baltimore
620 West Lexington Street, Suite 400
Baltimore, MD 21201
410-706-6631
410-706-6630 (fax)
xxxxxx@umaryland.edu<mailto:xxxxxx@umaryland.edu>

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