ASU ranks low in controversial federal funding

 by Leigh Munsil
 published on Wednesday, March 26, 2008

As lawmakers and universities continue to tiptoe around the controversial funding practice of earmarks, ASU officials have decided not to apply for these funds, hoping the decision pays off in the future.

Earmarks, a type of congressional appropriation, occur when national lawmakers approve spending without authorization from the executive branch to do so, circumventing merit-based awarding of money.

All three major remaining presidential candidates have spoken out against unauthorized congressional spending and advocate earmark reform.

But more than 800 colleges and universities applied for and received earmark funding for 2008, according to numbers released Monday by The Chronicle of Higher Education.

UA received the most earmark funding of Arizona colleges and universities listed in the report, receiving $4.9 million, making them No. 99 on the nationwide list of schools that received unshared monies. NAU received $4.6 million and came in at No. 106.

Nationwide, Mississippi State University received the most earmark funds — $43 million for 30 projects.

ASU, which did not receive any non-shared earmark money, is not listed.

"Arizona State University has a position that we do not seek appropriations," said Stu Hadley, the executive director of federal relations and assistant vice president for policy affairs for ASU.

In fiscal year 2007, ASU received about $145 million in federal research dollars, but all of that was earned competitively, Hadley said.

"Seeking earmarks is a two-edged sword," he said. "It might help in the short run, but federal agencies are not impressed by universities that don't compete for their money."

"ASU is an institution that can compete," he added.

Johnny Cruz, director of media relations at UA, said applying for congressional earmarks is necessary to pay for projects that would not receive money other ways.

The only money ASU will receive from appropriations, Hadley said, will be from split earmarks given to agencies that mentioned ASU in their requests.

Hadley estimates that ASU will receive about $400,000 to $500,000 indirectly through earmarks that were requested by various other entities — such as the Southwest Consortium for Environmental Research and Policy, which received more than $1 million to split between ASU and four other universities.

"Even though ASU is mentioned in that request, we didn't submit a request for that," Hadley said.

However, he said ASU does submit more than a dozen programmatic requests each year asking that money be given to national research entities such as the National Science Foundation, from which ASU gets 25 to 30 percent of its federal research dollars.

Compared with the amount of money ASU receives competitively, Hadley said, the money received through Congressional earmarks is insubstantial.

According to The Chronicle of Higher Education, Rep. Harry Mitchell, D-Tempe, sponsored four earmarks that were awarded — two for Mesa Community College programs, one requested by the city of Scottsdale and one to go toward the light-rail project.

"ASU has never asked me for earmarks," Mitchell said.

Mitchell said the purpose of proposing earmarks is to secure funding for his constituents, since the money will be awarded anyway.

"I think the local people know what their needs are better than bureaucrats in Washington," he said.

Reach the reporter at: leigh.munsil@asu.edu.