ABSTRACT
The director’s parting observations once again identified persistent perceptions that beset social science at NSF. In 1990, the dean of the Yale University School of Medicine deplored the state of support for medical research, including the worsening prospects for the funding of grants for investigator-initiated research. He emphasized peril to the nation’s health because of the threat to the next generation of researchers. Political power is clearly evident in the allocations and projections for the refurbished Directorate of Education and Human Resources. Social scientists had indeed gained additional support from beyond their disciplinary boundaries. The American Sociological Association and the American Psychological Society, the academic research association that had broken away from the clinically oriented American Psychological Association, endorsed a new directorate. In social science, prospective change evokes a variety of accommodations. Anthropology was opposed, but would abide by a consensual decision.
