Gillis to Participate in Briefing of U.S. Senators

Contact: Michael Cinelli
Phone: (713) 831-4794

Gillis to Participate in Briefing of U.S. Senators

Rice president Malcolm Gillis will join
leading university presidents in Washington, D.C. Wednesday to brief
a bipartisan group of U.S. senators on the indirect costs of
research grants and the future of basic research funded by the
federal government.

Gillis was invited to take part in the briefing by Charles M.
Vest, president of MIT, who organized the meeting. Other university
presidents attending the meeting are George Rupp of Columbia;
William C. Richardson of Johns Hopkins; and James Wright, acting
president of Dartmouth.

Members of the U.S. Senate’s appropriations, labor and human
resources committees have been invited to attend the briefing, which
starts at 8 a.m. EST in U.S. Sen. Judd Gregg’s office. Gregg is a
Republican lawmaker from New Hampshire.

The meeting comes at a time when America’s scientific and
political leaders are grappling with federal budget issues and a new
world order in the aftermath of the Cold War.

In an effort to balance the federal budget, Congress is
considering drastically cutting the budgets of a number of federal
agencies, including funds for research and development projects in
the Department of Defense, the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration (NASA) and the National Institutes of Health. There
is also discussion in Washington of eliminating the Department of
Energy.

But federal research dollars contribute to the success of the
American higher education system, Gillis said.

“While many Americans believe that Japan or Germany or some
other nation now leads America in one field or another, no Japanese
or European university compares with any of the top 25 universities
in this country,” he added. “In 1993, almost half a million foreign
students enrolled in U.S. universities. These students came here for
good reasons, including superior research faculties and facilities.”

At a “Science in the National Interest” forum at MIT in
February, Vest said, “Science generally has enjoyed strong
nonpartisan support for half of this century. As the nation grapples
with the overriding budget issues and a dramatically new
international environment, we must strive to retain this support and
its nonpartisan nature.”

In addition to reviewing the federal government’s role in
university-led research projects, the group will “emphasize the
significant commitment research universities and colleges are making
in supporting basic research on their own,” Gillis said.

Rice University is an independent, coeducational, nonsectarian
private university dedicated to undergraduate teaching and graduate
studies, research and professional training in selected disciplines.
It has an undergraduate student population of 2,584, a graduate and
professional student population of 1,489 and a full-time faculty of
448.

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