A dean . . . confided that, because funds were so short, he had chosen mathematics as the field in which his college should truly seek excellence: It's so cheap, he said. Apart from the salaries you only have to buy the faculty desks and chairs, chalkboards and chalk, paper and wastebaskets. Another dean went him one better: We've chosen sociology, which is even cheaper because they don't need the wastebaskets.
No takes yet. Share an insight, caveat, or question.
Lowell L. Hargens (1991) studied this question.