Recently, I had the opportunity to review inquiries submitted to the Special Grant program for the year 2000. The largest category of request is for small, curriculum-related projects. Not unexpectedly, I found that equipment is the most highly requested item (72 percent). To my surprise, however, the next most highly requested item (40 percent) is salary support for faculty members.

It is not unusual that support for equipment may be required for change that "would otherwise not take place". But I remain puzzled by the idea that professors need to be paid from external funds to develop a single course or to modify or create a piece of a curriculum. Have circumstances altered so radically since my own faculty days that faculty members do not see development of courses or curricular units as an integral part of their responsibility? Where does this change in perspective come from?

See Letter re: this article