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Wednesday, October 13, 2004
A REAL CAR WRECK
One of UD's colleagues has just been arrested for embezzlement. It's a very destructive thing for the university, because he's alleged to have stolen large amounts of federal money from the GW program he directed (he recently left the university's faculty) -- a much-touted traffic safety research center. In one of those statements that ring with irony now, the same director said, when the center was running high, that "GW’s credibility is so strong...there’s no need to advertise the program [to graduate students] because it is recognized for excellence around the world." That credibility has been badly damaged. To say nothing of the financial wreckage. GW committed a lot of money to a program run by a man who used federal research funds for Washington Redskins tickets, a Florida condominium, and other luxuries. He will almost certainly go to prison. UD figures GW can't abandon the program, having spent so much money on it. She figures the university will have to conceive a way to salvage it. Stories like this one are part of the larger conflict of interest story on most American research campuses. Throw enough money at any scholarly enterprise, blur the line between academic research and profit-making sufficiently, and you'll get similar outcomes. |