Universities: The Research Squeeze

Since tuition, private gifts and endowment income fail to balance their budgets, U.S. universities increasingly tend to rely on the Federal Government for financial salvation. The current congressional economy drive, which has sharply limited federal support for academic research, has thus created a situation that university officials variously describe as "serious," "desperate" and even "disastrous."

The deepest cuts have been made in the basic-research programs of the National Science Foundation, which also provided about 8,000 new fellowships for graduate students last year. Congress sliced $95 million from the NSF projects, a 19% cut from last year's total. The research funds...

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