The money changes people. Even many professors and researchers. The ability to generate vast amounts of capital with Initial Public Offerings and the like means that scientists can fund their programs with much more ease and assurance then the more traditional grant process. The issues associated with cuts in funding for basic research by Big Government and the overall lack of interest in hard science on the part of many college students or college bound students today means that there are fewer and fewer alumni to turn to to help with these funding issues.
And their is no having to go through the peer review process to get the money to fund research if an IPO takes off. There is no shortage of investors willing to jump on the IPO bandwagon for the next promising biotech startup. Which is one of the reasons many of your fellow scientists may be acting more like sports "professionals" and less like academic professionals. I would suggest the presence of so many more business people at universities and college campuses working on "business/technology investment" and "public/private" partnership ventures or whatever name they are given is another reason many universities feel less like places of learning and more like just another business office.
And their is no having to go through the peer review process to get the money to fund research if an IPO takes off. There is no shortage of investors willing to jump on the IPO bandwagon for the next promising biotech startup. Which is one of the reasons many of your fellow scientists may be acting more like sports "professionals" and less like academic professionals. I would suggest the presence of so many more business people at universities and college campuses working on "business/technology investment" and "public/private" partnership ventures or whatever name they are given is another reason many universities feel less like places of learning and more like just another business office.
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