Date: Tue, 09 Dec 1997 21:23:41 -0500
From: tombrown@jhunix.hcf.jhu.edu (Thomas F Brown)
Subject: Re: Time limits
To: socgrad@csf.colorado.edu
Message-id: <199712100223.VAA16923@jhunix.hcf.jhu.edu>
References: <199712092137.OAA04224@csf.Colorado.EDU>
>Also, I would counsel skepticism on the "there are only so many
>resources to go around" arguments.  It smuggles in all sorts of
>assumptions about the rationality and tight coupling of the process of
>"making" a social scientist that may not be so valid.
>Not to be retrograde about it, but there's much more to running a
>starship than answering a bunch of damn fool questions and more to
>growing a discipline than cost benefit analyses.

It's naive to assume away budget constraints. If there weren't
budget constraints, I don't think we'd even be having this
discussion. 

>Finally, the trim the fat, be lean and mean, tie expenditures to
>production mentality may very well succeed in transforming a discipline
>like ours into one where everyone selects things that can be in-the-oven
>and-out in a short four years and that may end up producing quite
>unintended consequences in terms of what constitutes sociology.

This is another important policy consideration, but it speaks to academic
reasons for taking a long time. It's a categorically different issue
than paying to support people with personal problems that slow them down.

We essentially have two separate issues on the table now:

1) How long "should" a sociology degree take to completion, given
that budget contraints do exist?

2) How much leeway should be built into the funding system to give extra
support to students who run into bad luck, or who bring serious personal 
challenges along with them?