An economic engine

UAMS is in trouble. It is having to lay off people or not hire in 600 staff positions. These are likely support staff who answer questions, do building maintenance, beautify the building hallways or grounds, transport patients, and make things run more smoothly. Then, reportedly a second round of cuts is coming for faculty who hold positions in teaching, research, biostatistics, grant writing, and translational medicine. Who does that leave: those people who are doing direct patient care where some form of insurance will pay, or researchers and their staff who are receiving mostly outside funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) or the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). UAMS will balance its budget by dropping every graceful note, every supportive service. Dust will accumulate in corners. Pictures will never rotate. Flowers will not be planted and trash will blow about the parking decks.

However, even worse than the aspect of an unloved and unlovely facility will be the loss of young investigators who have not managed to break into the difficult peer-review system of funding and all the college graduates in math, biology, and chemistry who will have to look outside Arkansas for a job.

If ever there was a need for the Legislature to step up and help an institution that is a major economic engine, a major employer, and a granter of improved quality of life for Arkansas, it is now.

NELL MATTHEWS

Little Rock