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Susan Oleksiw's avatar

Sadly, I couldn't find a word to disagree with in your post. I encountered the same problems during my stint in college teaching, but also, to my surprise in related fields. The curator of a small museum promised her modest collection to the museum when she died; as a result they took very good care of her. But she never bought anything for the museum that might overshadow the pieces in her collection. As a result, the museum, which could have had a growing very respectable collection in a particular area, had a second-rate collection not worth the money spent on it.

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M.E. Proctor's avatar

I spent 3 years as a researcher at a European university, one of these jobs that renowned professors dole out because they land a government contract with attached juicy fees. I can testify that throat-cutting was widely practiced in the research ranks too. Understandable. When you're on a temporary contract, with no guarantee of renewal, and you plan to make a career out of this (with maybe an elusive prof spot somewhere along the way), every other researcher is a potential threat. And the prof holding the contract is an almighty god.

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