Research-extensive land-grant institutions face the unique challenge of asking faculty to fulfill a historic mission of public service in a time of scarce resources. This article discusses the parallel between the effects of resource dependency and academic capitalism on the research enterprise and on public service endeavors through the perceptions of faculty at a research-extensive land-grant institution. Results confirm that the nature of faculty public service work is shifting in scope, scale, process, and audience due to the scarcity of resources for public service and subsequent changes in faculty behavior. Perhaps the most difficult, as well as the most enduring, question of public service is the question of how we can afford it--or indeed whether we can afford not to do it ("P. H. Crosson, Public Service in Higher Education: Practices and Priorities").