Grant Dispute Throws an Unwritten Rule of Academic Poaching Out the Window
A less-than-collegial battle between two major research universities in laid-back Southern California says much about the severity of the financial pressures mounting on American higher education. Among research universities a longstanding gentlemen’s agreement has held that a scientist who moves from one institution to another is allowed to carry any grant support along to his or her new home. Now, with universities counting every dollar, that bit of protocol may become a quaint courtesy of days gone by. The dispute broke out last month, when Paul S. Aisen, a professor of neurosciences at the University of California at San Diego and director of its Alzheimer’s Disease Cooperative Study, resigned to join the University of Southern California.