NS is pulling kind of a dick move: they're asking me to find a lesser costing system. A system that will be able to do the job, though not exactly what I want. I really should have gotten this in writing. On the plus side, they said I can start ordering equipment and outfitting my new lab space. This will allow me to really start as soon as I show up (I hope) and get students faster (I hope) since everything will already be ready (I hope).
One thing I'm trying to work out given the lesser equipment is that I may be able to get a lab tech with some of the saved money difference. Though a couple year's salary of a lab tech hardly makes up for the equipment difference. I'm going to miss the days of my practically unlimited budget....
Don't settle for the less costly equipment. Do you have email or anything else to the effect? Can you get some external money, say from company, that is earmarked for the difference? Don't just go with it. If you are going to an R2, you might as well make sure you are able to become a big fish in a small pond. Which means you need to have something many others don't.
ReplyDeleteDon't give up.
I'm not planning on it. It's an R1 with a huge endowment. I plan to bring in money from my company for my own research, but the plan was that I would run this new equipment as a core facility at no additional cost. I would even pay for maintenance. This could help the school get more grants and do better research, and this is part of my argument.
DeleteI have been using my past email correspondence and the head is starting to back off and give me what they promised. I'll post an update hopefully soon!
Don't let them do this! This happened to me. Make sure you have in writing what they were going to do!
ReplyDeleteThere are always unforeseen budget issues, but if you give in now the dept head will be able to control you forever. Put your feet down!
I highly recommend not taking the tech salary as consolation. They may say they're giving you multiple years of salary for the tech but the next year they could pull what they're doing to you right now and cut the funding for your tech. The equipment will be there forever.
ReplyDeleteI didn't think that they could turn it down once it was on paper, but I am leaning more away from the tech idea. I think this was a desperate move on my end, but I need to put my foot down. This is something I learned in industry, but for some reason, didn't utilize!
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