The state budget is basically for the salaries of professors. Rodney Burton, professor of Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering, agreed. Engineering uses its money for a variety of areas. First, it pays the people working in the machine shops, along with graduate students supported by the college. Again, this is where proposals are useful.
Every year is different, of course.
If you win a proposal, it is typically for two or three years. Before the engineering colleges get the money from the proposal, the University gets to take a little bit from the check. It's given to the board of trustees. The board first takes 55 percent of the money from the proposal to pay for heating, lighting and buildings. Then, another 35 percent of the money is taken out to support graduate students, Burton said.