S Nomadic Scientists

"Where is their sense of loyalty?" asked the article by Susan Dickinson about "The Nomadic Scientists of Today" (The Scientist, July 22, 1991, page 1). But loyalty is generated and reinforced when it is a mutual matter, and today's scientists are about as loyal to their institutions as their institutions are loyal to them. The article should have inquired, "Where is the institutions' sense of loyalty?"

Since the 1950s, American universities have treated their scientists as milk cows whose production supports the institutions' status and prestige. Thus, the article quotes administrators who say that they provide researchers with space, the stimulation of graduate students and colleagues, grant and purchase administration, and start-up funds. The institutions provide services for which they are reimbursed through the overhead levied on grants; the presence of colleagues and graduate students, which is surely nothing special in a university; and with funds only as an ...