Commentary by Roger Martin Martin writes about research at KU for Kansas media and in a Web zine. Contact Martin at rmartin@kucr.ukans.edu or (785) 864-7239. Martin also can be heard on KANU 91.5 FM public radio Archives More articles by Roger Martin Subscribe now to receive KU News by email

State-funded research is vital beyond university community

by Roger Martin

The University of Kansas has taken a $19 million budget hit since last July. Collectively, the Kansas Board of Regents universities have taken a $45 million hit.

The state's acting as if it's a person who's decided to cut off his hand because he can't afford the upkeep. It's wacky.

Why do I compare the university to a hand? Because it helps us *get a grip* on so many problems: physical disease, disability, environmental threats -- even our own stubborn prejudices.

Of course some people think that the business of government is the provision of police and fire protection, running water and roads. They consider universities a luxury.

But university researchers started taking the air out of this argument during World War II, when they helped develop synthetic rubber, radar and antibiotics.

Today, the best-funded research, the kind that gets the most federal support, often affects our lives directly and dramatically.

I asked Charles Decedue, Steven Warren and Leonard "Kris" Krishtalka what kinds of problems their scientists were trying to solve. The three are executives at the Higuchi Biosciences Center, the Institute for Life Span Studies, and the Natural History Museum and Biodiversity Research Center, respectively, outfits that receive a lot of federal money.

I'll start with the Higuchi center. Some researchers there want to understand the biological breakdowns that come with old age and cause cancer.

Others focus on proteins and their interplay. Studying proteins is a logical next step after you sequence the human genome. Genes are only the game plan for our lives; proteins actually run the plays.

Should Kansas cut the rations of an institution that's getting federal funds to study the brain's collapse in Alzheimer's disease?

Our next stop is the Life Span Institute. Warren says 54 million people have developmental disabilities in America. For several decades, KU researchers have been figuring out ways to help them become more independent.

Today, more and more researchers are looking at the genetic and environmental causes of intellectual disability.

Should Kansas cut the rations of an institution that's worked with other institutions to help people with Down syndrome read at a level that 100 years ago would have been considered fully literate?

Our last stop is the biodiversity center. For centuries, biologists have been recording data on plants and animals. With computers, these data now can be shared worldwide.

KU biologists have been blending the data with climatic, geographic and topographic information. When you mix it all together, you can simulate scary stuff -- like how far the West Nile virus might spread or what species will disappear first with global warming.

You also can help the government better manage our natural resources.

Should Kansas cut the rations of an institution that works to keep us current about environmental threats?

Government invests in attracting businesses for the sake of economic development. Education also serves economic development -- so why not invest in it, too? Is educating our kids less important than bringing a factory to town?

One last thing. It's old fashioned to say, but universities prepare people to experience new ways of seeing and thinking about the world.

Robert Frost described education as "the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence."

Isn't it a little wacky to cut the rations of institutions that provide that ability -- especially in a world like ours?