Part of the issue is that both overhead and state allocations are unreliable. Few universities can bank on things like "We'll get $10 million a year to keep the

Part of the issue is that both overhead and state allocations are unreliable. Few universities can bank on things like "We'll get $10 million a year to keep the cluster updated" and the lesson learned from the many soft money institutes that spawned during the Clinton years is that overhead-dependent services are a recipe for boom and bust, and the loss of exactly that kind of experience you're talking about.