Reality check?....

An integral part of being a tenure-track faculty member at a university is generally applying for and receiving grants for research purposes.  A grant requires some sort of budget, hopefully one that is thoughtfully constructed with accurate numbers. We used to double check budgets but now if the faculty makes a mess, they have to figure out how to live within the allocated budget.  This of course, assumes, as the Primary Investigator, that they are the person fiscally responsible for decisions on how to manage the grant funding.

So at this time of year it really amazes (but no longer surprises me) to get requests along these lines:  I want summer salary paid from my grant.  If I follow up with logical questions like: "How much, from which account."  I receive unaccountably blank looks often followed by: "I don't know, I don't know how much I have and I don't know the account number."

Really, if you were to go to the bank and say: "Hi, I want you to give me money to live on this summer, but I don't know what account is mine, how much I want you to give me, or how much is in my account" They would look at you really funny and tell you to come back when you had your information.

If faculty tell me the same thing about summer salary they get irritated when they get the same reaction from me. I seriously have neither a crystal ball nor a magic wand.  I need some information to help with this request.