President Steven Leath has wasted no time in implementing his goal that Iowa State become the “partnership university.” Tuesday, he released a document providing details about a program he summarized during his installation address. That program, the Presidential Initiative for Interdisciplinary Research, will award grants of up to $500,000 over three years to up to three teams.

That may seem like a lot of money, but given the kind of research Leath wants faculty, students and professionals to do here — working with business and industry in public/private partnerships on large-scale projects that bring this university’s activity out of the “ivory tower” — that $1.5 million will probably resemble a drop in a bucket.

The funding is “pursuit funding” and will be “provided to support the preparation of large-scale multi-investigator proposals, not for conducting the research itself or for preliminary investigations.” In fact, the guidelines state: “Funds may not be used to support … research-related materials, equipment and salaries.” The impression arises that the money will go toward building interpersonal relationships.

If the people this university wants to work with to build research programs require half a million dollars before actually beginning anything, we should probably reassess the priorities of those individuals.

Such a scheme will probably not end up serving the land-grant goal Leath had in mind when formulating his plan. As he said in his installation speech — when he introduced this Presidential Initiative for Interdisciplinary Research — “We are also determined [in addition to economic development] to make a positive difference in the lives of Iowans. Through extension and outreach, we provide Iowans with access to education about issues that matter to them.” Ordinary Iowans, however, do not run the “companies, foundations and other organizations” expected to participate in the Initiative.

There are better uses for this money. Giving it to the departments most often pidgeonholed as the “ivory tower” — such as history and political science, for example, whose budgets are about or below the $1.5 million mark — would give those departments resources to get out of the ivory tower.

Or that money could be given to Extension and Outreach. It is the Extension and Outreach service that most ardently carries out the land-grant mission Leath wants so much to uphold, “offering practical, how-to education based on powerful university research.” Further, when their budget was cut in 2009 by $4.3 million, they lost 25 positions on campus in addition to consolidating five regional directors and 92 county directors into one supervisor and 20 regional directors.

Or Leath could use the money to advance accessibility to higher education through affordability. That $1.5 million would provide 225 full-tuition scholarships to in-state students.

We feel those options speak for themselves.