In addition to teaching several classes, Miller spent most of the following week revising the budget of his NSF grant. He had been through this exercise many times before. He spent time on Monday with his assistant, Jack, trying to figure out the best way to cut the budget without endangering the actual research project.
Reducing salaries was always the first step. He reduced his own summer salary and that of his coprincipal investigator, Dr. Arturo Gomez, from two months to one month. In addition, he reduced the number of research assistants included in the budget from three to two. Cutting salaries greatly reduced the sixty-percent overhead taken out by the Texas Institute for Scientific Research. Unfortunately, it also reduced support for graduate students needed by the Department of Geology. Although TISR was supported to some degree by private funds, most of its funding came from the state of Texas. For the department to support itself on state money, it virtually had to justify its existence by the number of students enrolled in each of its classes. As a result, it was important to try to attract as many students as possible.
It turned out that one graduate student was worth about five undergraduate students in terms of state “brownie points.” It was also important to obtain enough research assistantship money to support students during the summer months. Graduate students as well as faculty were on nine-month appointments by the state. Funds were needed not only for their summer salary, but also to support their field research in geology. Often this research was on the west coast of the United States or in a foreign land. Miller had students who had field projects as far away as the Persian Gulf, Argentina, and Tibet. No funds were available from the state to support the cost of graduate student research. The students were either supported by grant funds from industry and the federal government, or by meager grants from various geological societies.
After struggling with his assistant, Jack, all week to prepare a revised budget, Miller carted it off to TISR’s Office of Sponsored Projects to submit to NSF. Jack was upset because grant support for his salary was also cut. He fussed and fumed about it and threatened to quit, but he finally calmed down when the geology department head came up with the rest of his salary from state funds.
Miller briefly prepared for his weekly Friday workshop in geology. He had allowed about forty-five minutes for this purpose. He set up slide projectors and overhead projectors and erased the blackboard, which was never cleaned by the cleaning crew. One by one, the students arrived in the class, some with their usual French fries and hamburgers. Gary was late. This was a routine that Miller and his students had now become used to. As Miller started to speak, Gary burst through the door and the class got started.
Miller said, “We’ll continue with our discussion from last Friday about the breakup of the supercontinent Pangea.”
After a lengthy discussion about Pangea, one of his students, George, said, “Professor Miller, I have a little question. I’ve read about continental drifting and looked at the globe here in the classroom. How can you fit North America and South America up against Eurasia and Africa? Mexico seems to be in the way.”
“George, your ‘little question’ is a giant one. It is actually related to the research grant that I just received from the National Science Foundation.
Professor Arturo Gomez and I will be examining the rocks of east-central Mexico to come up with some answers to the question that you just posed. In the meantime, I would like all of you to read about the San Andreas Fault in California. I also would like you to look into a report by Jones and others on displaced geologic terranes.”