In this article the authors discuss research they conducted that examined the relationship between the perceptions of respondents about the scarcity of support staff and faculty at universities and the value they place on research. They note that their research builds on pervious studies that have examined perceptions on the criticality of personnel resources at colleges and universities and that their findings have implications related to the designing of departmental retrenchment strategies for universities. Their findings suggest that research universities place a greater value on support staff during times of resource scarcity, suggesting that if retrenchment is necessary these resources are valued and should be preserved.