Ditto.  It's easy to delete the messages in a thread you don't want to follow,
and you can't expect each person who asks such a question to assemble the
answers and post them again.

Ruth Tallman wrote:

> Jim,
>
> As the one who created the pelting of your mailbox with responses
> to my oversimplified survey, I feel the need to respond.  Over half
> of the responses I have received have been sent directly to me.
> I will be summarizing the responses early next week.   The beauty
> of using the reply key when responding to a request such as mine
> is that the subject line remains the same.  If I'm not interested in
> what is being discussed, I delete by subject.  Maybe you don't have
> that feature.
>
> And, yes, the survey was terribly simplified.  I did that for two reasons:
> (1) I didn't want to take much of your time to respond and (2) as you have
> pointed out, the variety of institutions and structures is too numerous
> and complicated to analyze.  However, we are in the age of cutbacks
> and restructuring.  We're constantly being invaded by consulting firms
> who are reviewing our structure.  They talk to one or two people, pull a
> recommendation from their bag and are gone.  We need all the ammo
> we can get!  I'm very, very pleased with the results for my purpose and
> very, very thankful to have the RESADM-L as a resource!
>
> Thank you for your input.
>
> Ruth
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From:   James R. Brett [SMTP:xxxxxx@CSULB.EDU]
> Sent:   Friday, February 26, 1999 5:27 AM
> To:     xxxxxx@hrinet.org
> Subject:        Re: Academic vs. Finance
>
> I am wondering if the 1,300 or so people reading the RESADM-L listserv
> could agree to have future polls of a general nature taken off-line.  That
> would mean that questions likely to stimulate scores of responses would be
> posed as usual, but that respondants would reply not to the service, but
> directly to the inquiring colleague.  I am sure that most pollers would be
> pleased to present the refined results to us (as we have seen this week ...
> thank you CSULA).
>
> It is a little unusual, I think, to have those polled subjected to each
> incremental answer to a survey.  I am not claiming human subjects
> protection here, just asking for a little thoughtfulness about the
> inevitable pelting our email inboxes take every time someone asks a very
> broad and general question.
>
> With respect to the current survey on reporting lines, I have to believe
> that the response will defy correlation.  Academic organization is highly
> ideosyncratic and personalized.  A given structure will work well with one
> constellation of senior leaders and then become a problem when the
> constellation changes.  The results will show institutions bringing in $3m,
> $30m and $300m using the same or similar apparent structure; institutions
> growing and institutions fading using the same organizational structure,
> etc.  Sometimes state laws, institutional by-laws, and federal guidelines
> mesh in different ways.  One should mention that the institutional faculty
> "culture" weighs in significantly in this.  At Long Beach we have a
> Research Office, Sponsored Programs Office, Grants and Contracts
> Administration Office, a Central Development Office, and nearly a dozen
> local College and Special Unit Development offices.  It produces harmony,
> light, peace, truth, Justice, and about $40m in g&c and $35m in gifts and
> donations.  We often work very closely with one another to reasonably good
> results.  At other institutions the division of labor has produced DMZ's,
> thin red lines, and an occasional divot on the face of the institution.
>
> So, at your institution, where is the authority vested for training faculty
> members in grant proposal writing technique, AND where is the
> responsibility for outcomes of that activity vested?  It is a rhetorical
> question meant to demonstrate the need to look to function rather than
> form.
>
> Jim
>
> --
> James R. Brett, Ph.D., Director
> Office of University Research
> California State University, Long Beach
> 562-985-4833   fax 985-8665
> http://www.csulb.edu/~research
>
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--
Peter J. Dolce, Ph.D., Director
Office of Research Support Services
Meharry Medical College
Nashville, TN  37208
P (615) 327 6703
F (615) 327 6716

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