IP: Clarification on With Stock as Bait, Microsoft Lures Elite Professors

[Dave Farber <farber@cis.upenn.edu>]

>From: Raj Reddy <rr@cs.cmu.edu>
>
>Friends,
>
>I sent the following letter to the Editor of Post
>
>------------begin letter
>
>To
>The Editor
>Washington Post
>
>I am dismayed by the tone of the Post article "Microsoft Skims Off Academia's Best for Research Center"
>
>In particular, the phrase "Microsoft Corp. is luring faculty elites to its research center at a pace so fast that some campus departments say they're being picked clean" is a gross overstatement.
>
>What I said was " Yes, MSR hiring has had serious impact on us.  We win some and lose some on new hires (e.g. Steve Seitz).  That is the natural order of things.  MSR is the only industrial group strongly supporting basic research in CS and IT.  Universities like CMU must continue to formulate and forge ahead in new directions that are not yet commercially attractive.  Because, Industry can in general bring an order of magnitude more resources to bear on near term opportunities than CMU."
>Hope this helps to clarify the situation for your readers.
>
>Raj Reddy
>____________________________________________________
>Dean,  School of Computer Science, WH 5325
>Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh PA 15213-3891 
>Tel: 412-268-2597       Fax: 412-683-5348
>Email: rr@cmu.edu       Homepage: www.rr.cs.cmu.edu
>
>-----------end letter
>
>
>Best 
>Raj Reddy
>