> Would you say that you are expected to "donate", via that 49%, your own
> salary and then some (for administrators, or course)?
In a sense yes, and many folks are happy to provide some of their funding
back to their departments (49% is a lot though). But, many universities
in this day and age of declining funding from government have increasingly
turned education into a business. Students routinely get ripped off at
campus bookstores and dining facilities in terms of higher prices than you
might find elsewhere (I'm not saying students should get a free and easy
ride, but they shouldn't be taken advantage of either as most tend to be
pretty poor unless they have well off parents). And what about
departments that don't really get large grants like English or the arts.
They get shafted is what happens. The same is happening within biology.
If what you do doesn't bring in very much money, then they'd rather have
someone else who can. It doesn't matter what value your research has to
society, or what contribution you make towards students education. Now,
not every university is like this, but many seem to be heading in that
direction. At least my old university is. Hopefully the pendulum swings
a little bit back the other way eventually as we can't base the types of
research undertaken on $$ alone.
Cheers
Peter
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