The Adequacy of Institutional Resources and Institutional Support (Q 2)
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Do faculty have what they need to meet their scholarship and teaching responsibilities? In terms of departmental support from their unit head, the business office, and the clerical staff, more than three quarters feel adequately supported (see Tables 8 and 9) .

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Comparing responses by school, Education (67%), Management (66%), and Veterinary Medicine (65%) faculty feel somewhat less support than average from their unit head. Respondents from Management are more satisfied than average with their clerical/secretarial assistance (96%), while Libraries faculty are at theother end of the continuum with only 55% satisfied with their clerical support.

Faculty members are somewhat less likely to believe they are adequately supported in their research – 65% believe they receive adequate assistance in grant writing and budgeting (that percentage drops to 55% in Technology and 50% in Veterinary Medicine), and 62% believe that assistance in obtaining patents, copyrights, and trademarks is adequate (only 52% in Engineering and 50% in Veterinary Medicine).  Half (51%) feel study design and data analysis assistance is adequate, but far fewer are satisfied in Science (38%), Management (33%), and Engineering (27%).

Overall, 57% perceive laboratory space to be adequate, but that percentage is substantially less in Engineering (38%) and Education (44%). Space for housing research animals is deemed to be adequate by 48% of all respondents, but by only 18% of those from Veterinary Medicine.

Satisfaction with equipment and supplies is generally high (70%), but perceptions vary considerably by school. Only 47% of Education faculty believe they have adequate equipment and supplies, compared to 83% of Consumer and Family Sciences faculty and 93% of Management faculty. Somewhat fewer believe that their equipment is adequately maintained and upgraded (64%), particularly in Agriculture (54%) and Veterinary Medicine (50%).

Sixty-five percent of all respondents have found library resources to be adequate for their needs, but examining responses by school, that percentage stands at only 35% in Liberal Arts and 39% in Education, which is the "laboratory" for many in these schools.

Only a minority believes that internal funding for new teaching ideas (45%), new research ideas (41%), travel (38%), and bridge support between external grants (33%) is adequate. Faculty in Education, the Libraries, and the Health Sciences are particularly dissatisfied with the availability of internal funds for these purposes.

Differences by Rank

Assistant professors are generally more satisfied with the support and resources provided by Purdue than their colleagues who have been in the field longer. They are more satisfied than associate and full professors with support from their unit head, maintenance and upgrade of equipment, assistance in obtaining patents, copyrights, and trademarks, and with internal funding for both new research ideas and bridge support between external grants. Associate professors, on the other hand, are particularly dissatisfied with equipment and supplies, unit travel funds, and library resources.

Perceptions regarding internal research support are especially noteworthy. For example, while 50% of assistant professors believe this support is satisfactory, only 42% of associate professors and 34% of professors are satisfied with current levels of this support. Satisfaction with bridge support also varies substantially by rank – 44% of assistant professors are satisfied with it while only 31% and 32% of associate and full professors respectively believe that current levels are adequate.

Differences by Gender

Females responded differently than males on a number of these issues. However, most differences appear to simply reflect perceptual differences across the schools and the varying distribution of women in the schools (e.g., women are less satisfied than men with library resources, but this largely reflects the fact the Education and Liberal Arts schools, where faculty are the least satisfied with library resources, are also schools with relatively high proportions of women faculty).

Taking into account these differences in gender representation across the schools, females are still less likely to believe that they have adequate laboratory space (48%) than are males (60%). In particular, women in Agriculture, Health Sciences, and Science are substantially less likely than their male counterparts to feel that they have adequate lab space.

Differences by Race

Asian American respondents are less satisfied than their peers with a number of Purdue’s resources and institutional supports. In particular, they are less satisfied with support from their unit’s business office, maintenance and upgrade of equipment, office space, lab space, information on funding opportunities, assistance in grant writing and budgeting, and assistance in study design and data analysis.

Underrepresented minorities are more satisfied than Asian Americans and Caucasians with support from their unit head, unit travel funds, and bridge support, but are less satisfied than average with the adequacy of TAs or graders and internal funding for new teaching ideas.