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> In fact, on the same day WVU wrote to tell us our department is cancelled and we are fired, they ran a front-page article on the university website celebrating the NSF grant that Sergio Robles-Puente and I recently received, and lauding our innovative research and intensive student mentoring.

I have a few close friends in academia and while IMO they're clearly underappreciated by their institutions (even the lucky ones who have tenure), this level of cynical disrespect is shocking.

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This reminds me of when MIT was putting student hacks, like the fire truck on the dome, on the front of their promotional material while prosecuting those same students for exploring unlocked areas of the campus.

It reminds me of the librarian that left $4 million to the University of New Hampshire and they spend $1 million of it on a scoreboard for the football team https://time.com/4497472/university-of-new-hampshire-librari...

So you're saying, in lack of any other evidence, that a librarian would want the money donated to the library?

I'm an engineer, I went to a school, I also played football and was in a fraternity. I think my school knows what they're doing. If I was to give them money in bequest, I'd either let them deal with it or I'd actually point it at the athletic department.

Actually now that I think of it I'd just put a $1M donation on game socks. All student athletes get great new socks once a week.

That and maybe something that encourages the good TAs to all be at the athletic complex.

My point is, based on a photo of me when I'm 80 and my career choice, you'd have no idea what I'd want to do with my money.

Can you share evidence of MIT explicitly prosecuting/bringing charges against students?

This isn’t shocking. It’s the nature of layoffs. The folks making the cuts aren’t telling the the folks in the communications office, “hey, we are firing that person you’re doing a front page story on.”

Also, the department won’t be dissolved until the end of the academic year.

i love the stories of companies announcing layoffs and then immediately announce bonuses for management. there's tone deaf, and then there's whatever this is

If you're talking about a public company, you're probably referring to an official filing, not an actual press release. I'm not aware of any company issuing press releases saying, "we just paid this dude 8 figures to fire those little people."

Are we related?

I guess we are now

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