A. Bartlett Giamatti, the president of Yale University has deplored the "mounting wave of regulation" and "requirements for massive amounts of paperwork" that he said Federal agencies heaped upon researchers supported by Government grants. Echoing a strong note of discontent voiced by many active in university-based scientific research, Mr Giamatti said "excessive or unthinking regulation" had damaged the relationship between government and universities. "There is a powerful resentment on all sides, and distrust," he told 500 people at the opening dinner of the annual Association of Yale Alumni assembly. "A radical skepticism bordering on open contempt for our centers of learning surfaces again."
Researchers at universities across the country have been protesting strongly against a government regulation, put into effect three months ago, that requires them to complete detailed "personnel activity reports" before they are reimbursed for "indirect costs"–overhead expenses–incurred during their work. Of $68 million Yale received in federal funds last year, Mr Giamatti said, $21 mfflion was for "indirect costs."
Under the new rule, researchers at Stanford University say they will have to complete 80,000 reports instead of the present 3,000, at a cost of between $250,000 and $300,000, Mr. Giamatti told the assembly, quoting from an article in Science magazine.
Critics also point to a 1968 Bureau of the Budget report evaluating time and effort reports when the original A-21 regulation, written in 1958, was revised in 1967 to include these reports. "Time or effort reports now required of faculty members are meaningless and a waste of time," the 1968 report says.
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