Thanks to the Kept-Up Academic Librarian for pointing out an article in The Washington Post about the lengths universities go to to recruit and retain top scholars:
George Mason University officials could not shout loud enough when economist Vernon L. Smith won the Nobel Prize in 2002. Smith’s recruitment a year earlier had shone a welcome light on the school, and the award was a crowning bonus.
Today, GMU is quiet, as Smith has slipped away for a job in California, lured by the same administrator who brought him to GMU.
Some universities play down faculty-member moves, calling them part of the recruitment process in higher education. Others refer to many of the raids on star faculty members by competing universities as poaching or outright theft.
“Top-talent people who are happy and successful and thriving as academicians are free agents,” said Mark S. Wrighton, chancellor at Washington University in St. Louis. “Imagine being manager of the St. Louis Cardinals, a World Series-class team, and every one of your players is always in free agency.”
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