Thursday, December 31, 2015

No NSF Grant for K :-( 2/19

This was K's last chance for what they call a "career grant." Two years ago he was a finalist and they didn't tell him he'd gotten the grant very late in the Spring, so he missed applying in the Summer of 2014. This past summer he worked like crazy to submit the proposal

(because if you don't know already, writing a grant proposal takes hundreds of hours of hard work, not considering all the other hours of the work that is actually described there -- e.g. publications, research, etc.)

K is understandably very disappointed. What an anti-climatic way to end the year, no?

And this news means NO SUMMER SALARIES are guaranteed for the next 5 years (part of the grant money is assigned for 7K of summer salary for him) and K has to scramble once more to apply to small internal grants at the university to make at least 3K in the summer.

I'm NOT PAID all summer long, so it's pretty tough for us every summer (because it's hard to plan and save during the other 9 months when I do have a salary).

You know, that's why I feel so ABSURDLY ANGRY when politicians get it WRONG and say that the cost of tuition at universities is due to the faculty salaries.

GAH!!!! Academics make very little money, seriously.

All right, it's very late and we have to sleep. And K's family won't even really know what this means to him.

Sigh... it's not fun to start a new year like that, right? :-(

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