I totally agree with you and I'm really, really tired of the illogical and hypocritical way AEI is operating. I'm a retired academic and was a member of the American Accounting Association (AAA) as well as other academic and professional associations. Most of these associations (being accountants after all), have never issued what would be described as political statements, but most of them have and continue to issue statements concerning proposed legislation impacting the accounting profession and tax legislation, without regard to whether the legislation is proposed by Democrats or Republicans. The last university where I was employed had a policy of reimbursing X dollars for any tenure-track faculty member to belong to one academic or professional association. As a long-term associate dean, I routinely approved and reimbursed additional academic and professional association memberships from our faculty development funds. But, as you stated, most faculty join these associations because they want to present their research at the conferences (this is research that the faculty member wants to publish, is looking for feedback which is frequently expected for tenure and promotion), as well as to stay current with their profession, to network with fellow researchers and see professional friends. If you were lucky, the conference was in a location that was a fun place to visit. Unfortunately, AAA had a tendency to schedule their conference in places like New Orleans in August (hotels are cheaper - such are accountants). Our business school faculty each received X dollars per year and had to decide which associations to join and which academic and/or professional conferences to attend. We had AACSB accreditation (a specialized accreditation for business schools) and it was important for that accreditation to be as generous as possible with faculty development funds. Far more expensive than membership dues are travel, hotel and food costs to attend these conferences. Many faculty paid amounts out of their own pockets since their faculty development funds rarely covered all of their expenses for the year if they were active in these associations. Many associations have regional and national conferences during the year which also increases the costs since faculty would frequently submit research papers at both levels. Other schools and colleges on campus did not provide as generous support and most faculty I knew across campus paid a lot more of the costs for membership and conference attendance out of their own pockets. Being a tax accounting, I can also agree with your comments about charitable deductions so taxpayers are subsidizing AEI. One main difference, for individuals who itemize their deductions, is that charitable deductions are usually fully deductible, whereas deductions for academic/professional memberships fall into a pot of deductions that have to exceed a threshold amount which is substantial for most individuals and leaving most without a deduction. If corporations are paying for employees to belong to professional associations those expenses are fully deductible, no limits, and are also being subsidized by taxpayers.
Yep - the costs of professional conferences are considerable, and its one way in which better resourced institutions can give more advantages to their faculty members and students. Penalizing public institutions for providing such supports just widens the gap between public and privates.
I totally agree with you and I'm really, really tired of the illogical and hypocritical way AEI is operating. I'm a retired academic and was a member of the American Accounting Association (AAA) as well as other academic and professional associations. Most of these associations (being accountants after all), have never issued what would be described as political statements, but most of them have and continue to issue statements concerning proposed legislation impacting the accounting profession and tax legislation, without regard to whether the legislation is proposed by Democrats or Republicans. The last university where I was employed had a policy of reimbursing X dollars for any tenure-track faculty member to belong to one academic or professional association. As a long-term associate dean, I routinely approved and reimbursed additional academic and professional association memberships from our faculty development funds. But, as you stated, most faculty join these associations because they want to present their research at the conferences (this is research that the faculty member wants to publish, is looking for feedback which is frequently expected for tenure and promotion), as well as to stay current with their profession, to network with fellow researchers and see professional friends. If you were lucky, the conference was in a location that was a fun place to visit. Unfortunately, AAA had a tendency to schedule their conference in places like New Orleans in August (hotels are cheaper - such are accountants). Our business school faculty each received X dollars per year and had to decide which associations to join and which academic and/or professional conferences to attend. We had AACSB accreditation (a specialized accreditation for business schools) and it was important for that accreditation to be as generous as possible with faculty development funds. Far more expensive than membership dues are travel, hotel and food costs to attend these conferences. Many faculty paid amounts out of their own pockets since their faculty development funds rarely covered all of their expenses for the year if they were active in these associations. Many associations have regional and national conferences during the year which also increases the costs since faculty would frequently submit research papers at both levels. Other schools and colleges on campus did not provide as generous support and most faculty I knew across campus paid a lot more of the costs for membership and conference attendance out of their own pockets. Being a tax accounting, I can also agree with your comments about charitable deductions so taxpayers are subsidizing AEI. One main difference, for individuals who itemize their deductions, is that charitable deductions are usually fully deductible, whereas deductions for academic/professional memberships fall into a pot of deductions that have to exceed a threshold amount which is substantial for most individuals and leaving most without a deduction. If corporations are paying for employees to belong to professional associations those expenses are fully deductible, no limits, and are also being subsidized by taxpayers.
Yep - the costs of professional conferences are considerable, and its one way in which better resourced institutions can give more advantages to their faculty members and students. Penalizing public institutions for providing such supports just widens the gap between public and privates.