Posted on 09/30/2009 3:46:19 AM PDT by TornadoAlley3
STILLWATER, OK -- A professor at OSU received $1.1 million in stimulus to study Alaskan grandparents. The National Science Foundation made the grant possible through their pot of stimulus money. But some Oklahomans say this is just one more example of stimulus waste.
For more than ten years Oklahoma State University professor Tammy Henderson has been researching grandparents. She studies their relationships and responsibilities within their families.
"This is an opportunity for us to really build a body of research that people will be using far beyond our age," said OSU Associate Professor Tammy Henderson, PhD.
Henderson is now continuing her research with $1.15 million in stimulus money. She and two other social science professors from the University of Alaska will be leading the research project. The research project is called "From Their Perspective: Alaskan Grandparents' Roles, Strengths and Needs."
"Aren't there people here that you could study?" asked Oklahoma Impact reporter Jennifer Loren.
"Yes. But, again, if you go to another place it has implications for indigenous people here in their communities. And there's a correlation between the geographic and the historical composition of folks in Oklahoma as well as in Alaska. So why not Alaska?" said Tammy Henderson, OSU Associate Professor.
With the stimulus funding Henderson will hire two new university employees. But, they will only be employed for the two year duration of the grant. That, she says, is how this project is stimulating.
"It is bringing two new positions to Oklahoma State University in economically challenging times," said Tammy Henderson, OSU Associate Professor.
The team will travel back and forth to Alaska several times where a team of about 15 people will take part in the study. They'll investigate Alaska native grandparents living in rural, semi-urban and urban areas of Alaska.
"Travel to some of the rural communities is extremely expensive and so I admit there's some of that," said Tammy Henderson, PhD, OSU Associate Professor.
But many Oklahomans are outraged stimulus money is being used for this project.
"If they think we need to study grandparents in Alaska, so be it. I just don't think we should use the stimulus funds for that particular issue," said Oklahoma State Representative Earl Sears.
Sears is one of many lawmakers who say it's wrong to use stimulus funds this way.
"What my understanding was of stimulus funds was just that, to stimulate things in regards to job opportunities, infrastructure projects, shovel ready... I don't see this as a shovel ready project," said Oklahoma State Representative Earl Sears.
But OSU administrators say research projects like this are key to the success of the university and therefore key to Oklahoma.
"As a university, you know, we all need to find a way to sort of compare ourselves to each other and research funding is one of the tools we use to compare with," said Toni Shaklee, OSU Assistant Vice President for Research.
She says research projects like this one will bring a higher caliber of faculty to the College of Human Environmental Sciences and therefore, more esteem to OSU. That translates into more students, which means more money for Oklahoma.
For Tammy Henderson, money is not the issue. For her the science is priceless.
"Is it fair? Um, I do not feel that the political answer is one that I should take as a university professor. But I will tell you as a professor who is trying to change the world by giving it good science and good theory it was a good thing to do," Said Tammy Henderson, PhD, OSU Associate Professor.
OSU has applied for more than $100 million in stimulus money for research grants alone. So far they've received $3.3 million.
It is shovel ready, and should be buried.
It just warms my heart to hear about the activities of professional students and useless endeavors of our “higher institutes of knowledge” in their pursuits of VALUABLE information and things for our society.
What ever happened to glowing reports and grants for ENGINEERING pursuits in our colleges? Oh, I forgot, those are only important in Asia and India.
Boy, that’s really stimulating.
“Henderson is now continuing her research with $1.15 million in stimulus money...Henderson will hire two new university employees. But, they will only be employed for the two year duration of the grant.”
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So, these three people will get $200,000/year
of “my” tax money for the next two years...
for diddly-squat.
Shovel ready...as in the grandparents?
Exactly. This is the essence of the "stimulus" program Take a million from a set of people who worked to earn it, but now no longer can spend it because they have had it stolen by the government. Then give it to another set of people who did nothing to earn it and allow them to spend it.
Net result to the economy is less than zero added value because of the overheads that government theft and squandering adds, but you do get to pay off some of the Democratic faithful in universities - people who would never survive in the marketplace because they don't do anything anyone wants to pay for.
But but but Biden is in charge of making sure that stimulus money is well spent.
ARRRRRGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH
All of these “stimulus” programs need to be compiled for an advertisement to run before next November to show the true absurdity and wastefulness of their decisions. An ad like that could be devastating if run nation wide against any candidate who voted for it.
“An ad like that could be devastating if run nation wide against any candidate who voted for it.”
It’s effect will be nuclear on the Dems.
When I was in graduate school, all of my professors bemoaned the election of any Republican because they knew that the gusher of taxpayer loot would taper off a bit. They understood this very well, but being the recipients of extorted money rather than the suppliers of it were all for it. They were just too cowardly to steal for themselves.
Senator Tom Coburn’s Take On The Stimulus
bttt
Gee..what has he done for The One?
I don’t know about the stimulus, but T. Boone has stimulated OSU’s geology department I can tell you that. OSU as far as I know has a pretty strong engineering dept. Although they were idiots to let that Other University have the Petroleum Engineering dept.
So, will these two students be working for two years at the shovel-ready job of digging everything and anything up on Palin in Alaska?????...and perhaps using those stimulated shovels to plant some things, too???
T. Boone is spending hundreds of millions of dollars on OSU athletics. He should have thrown her a bone, rather than the taxpayers.
bump
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