The College Fix

When the easy pork runs out, institutions have to take a different approach if they want to bring home the bacon.

That’s the lesson that institutions like West Virginia University and Mississippi State University are learning in the current political climate. The two institutions, like others in their states and many across the country, were longtime beneficiaries of well-placed lawmakers who secured research and infrastructure spending — often called earmarks or “pork” projects — outside the competitive process.

But all that has changed, as several powerful lawmakers who helped these institutions are no longer in Congress. These lawmakers came from both sides of the aisle and included party leaders and appropriations chairmen, such as the late West Virginia Senator Robert C. Byrd.

Read the full story at Inside Higher Ed.