Research Messenger
Vol 3, Issue 2
December 3, 2008
SDSU's Research Standing in the CSU
SDSU has emerged as a major research university over the past 25 years. Our Carnegie classification is “Doctoral/Research University with High Research Activity,” Carnegie's second-highest category. In the National Science Foundation's 2006 report (its most recent) on federal obligations for research and development, SDSU ranked 129th of 944 institutions that receive federal research support. We are America's No. 1 small research university (fewer than 15 Ph.D. programs) based on the productivity of our doctoral faculty, and would have ranked at No. 42 nationally in full competition.
We have achieved these distinctions while operating within, and fulfilling the missions of, an educational system not constituted to foster research. As a California State University, we work from a teaching platform. The resources for library and equipment are gauged to serve the educational mission; teaching responsibilities dominate the faculty workload; classrooms are designed for close student-faculty interaction; salaries are on the scale of teaching institutions; space is not accorded to the research effort; the state provides no funding for research; and we are not authorized to grant the advanced research degree (Ph.D.).
SDSU has offset these liabilities to some degree through a combination of effective leadership, faculty commitment and good fortune. Our predecessors -- particularly President Tom Day, Provost Al Johnson and Vice President of Research Jim Cobble -- made a commitment to the research enterprise and the development of the joint doctoral degrees that led to the distinctions mentioned above. President Stephen L. Weber and Provost Nancy Marlin have endorsed that commitment and joined with our faculty to provide the resources to defend it through difficult financial periods. SDSU's faculty has generated $2 billion in extramural funding to improve equipment from teaching to research grade, to support research personnel and to reduce their own teaching obligations in support of original scholarship.
The SDSU Research Foundation manages the research operation professionally and provides the space in which nearly two-thirds of our funded research is conducted. Fortuitously, SDSU's scholarly aspirations coincided with the rapid emergence of UCSD as a leading force in American education. With youthful vigor and few preconceptions, UCSD faculty recognized the quality of our scholars and welcomed us as partners, to reach goals neither could have achieved in isolation and to overcome the constitutional barriers of the CSU.
SDSU's commitment to research productivity as one of the two central goals of the university is unique within the CSU. Ours is the only doctoral/research rating by Carnegie. Our federal funding, the most common proxy for research success, is 2.6 times that of the next highest CSU (Long Beach), and 13.5 times the average of the other 22 CSUs. Of the 14 Ph.D. programs in the system, 12 are on our campus.
While the local comparison may be gratifying, it is also insular. We have reached the point where a national perspective is in order. A reasonable cohort would include universities that are public, urban and research-oriented -- the qualities that define SDSU's character and setting. That comparison will be the subject of the next Research Messenger.
Thomas R. Scott
Vice President for Research
San Diego State University