UNLV gets its share of fed funds

Jennifer Knight

Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2002 | 11:08 a.m.

The University of Nevada, Las Vegas had a banner year in fiscal 2002 in bringing home its share of federal dollars earmarked for higher education, according to a Chronicle of Higher Education report.

The report ranked UNLV 25th of 668 institutions in the nation in bringing home the most of what it called "government pork."

UNLV President Carol Harter was pleased that her institution made the list, but she disputed the use of the term "pork," which carries a negative connotation in politics.

"It isn't pork," Harter said. "It is highly directed money to help an institution perform helpful research that is necessary and relevant to our area."

Pork usually refers to funding for pet projects of lawmakers that is inserted into a larger bill.

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., brought home the 12th-largest share of what the Chronicle report called pork projects during the 2002 fiscal year. Of the $152 million he secured, $22.7 million went toward higher education projects in the state.

UNLV received the largest portion of that at $13.7 million. The University of Nevada, Reno received $8.5 million and the remaining $500,000 went to the Desert Research Institute.

Universities such as UNLV increasingly rely on such funding for their projects.

Both UNLV and UNR have hired Washington lobbyists to ensure they aren't left out of the government grab bag.

UNLV spends $268,000 a year on Washington lobbyists who help bring top projects to the attention of lawmakers. UNR spends about $210,000 a year on lobbyists in Washington.

"Higher education has been forced to invest in lobbying, and UNLV has been good at it," Linda Brinkley, UNR's vice president of research, said.

Attaining earmarks -- or what the report calls pork -- is often easier for higher education institutions than trying to secure federal research grants.

To get a federal grant, the process involves hiring a grant writer to submit a proposal. Then, a peer-review team evaluates it against several other projects.

The top recipients of federal research money are often big-name universities. In fiscal year 2000, for example, Johns Hopkins University was at the top of the list at $793.2 million in federal research grants, according to the National Science Foundation. UNLV was around $20 million. The earmarks UNLV received in fiscal 2002, school officials said, will be used for projects that otherwise would not have been funded.

UNLV received two of the largest earmarks in 2002, according to the report: $5 million to digitize medical records and $4.5 million to find ways to reduce the radioactivity of nuclear waste.

"If you had the chance to get $5 million without competing for it, wouldn't you?" said Lisa Zumpt, deputy director of Nevada's ESPCoR, the Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research, a federally funded program that helps smaller states get competitive research funding.

And while earmarks are based on political influence, so are federal research grants, said Tony Hechanova, a research scientist heading up UNLV's nuclear transmutation project at the Harry Reid Center.

"They make it seem like the (federal research) grant process is so rigorous and careful but that's still a good ol' boys game and it's just as politicized," Hechanova said. "In my opinion the so-called pork projects are some of the better projects that are coming out of Congress."

Harter said UNLV's high ranking in the Chronicle report is a good sign for the university.

"We're pleased to be on that list," Harter said. "It's another indication that we are moving into the ranks of research universities."

So when it comes to federal earmarks, Nevada's universities will likely continue to lobby for the money -- and Reid will continue to bring home the bacon.

"I don't know where the term pork came from, but for me, I think (in this case) it's a positive term," Reid said. "My only concern is that I don't get more of these projects. I'll try to do better and get more next year."