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The University of Idaho is losing one of its top researchers, a veterinary science professor who helped bring renown to the state by being part of a team that gave the world its first equine clone. S-R higher ed reporter Kevin Graman reports that some university critics, including some prominent Idaho veterinarians, are unhappy about the imminent departure of associate professor Dirk Vanderwall, who is taking a position at the University of Pennsylvania. “The University of Idaho frankly screwed this up beyond repair,” said Bruce Lancaster, of Idaho Falls, former president of the Idaho Veterinary Medical Association and former chairman of the advisory board for the university’s Northwest Equine Reproduction Laboratory/Betsy Russell, Eye On Boise. More here.
Question: Are you concerned that the imminent departure of Dirk Vanderwall is a sign that academic oversight at the University of Idaho is going downhill?
D.F. Oliveria is a columnist and blogger for The Spokesman-Review. Huckleberries Online was judged the best 2008 Idaho newspaper blog by the Idaho Press Club. And the best 2007 news blog in the Pacific Northwest by the Society for Professional Journalist. Print Huckleberries is a past winner of the Herb Caen Memorial Column contest by the National Association of Newspaper Columnists. The Readership Institute of Northwestern University cited this blog as a good example of online community journalism.
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Sam on March 09 at 3:20 p.m.
Interesting that the university wouldn’t comment on the issue because it was a “personnel issue.” But isn’t it also an issue of what the loss of that researcher means to the university’s veterinary science program and the research that they do? Why couldn’t they be bothered to answer questions about that? Not just the loss of an employee, but the loss of perhaps research funding, the ability to recruit top-notch graduate and phd candidates to the university to study (which has the potential to increase prestige of the university as well as bringing in even more research funding), etc. etc.?
It’s a public university, why couldn’t they answer those questions?
Sisyphus on March 09 at 4:04 p.m.
Not “perhaps”, Sam. I think they lost a ton of grant money by losing this key individual. And yet they wanna cut higher ed funding even more. Penny wise, pound foolish.
hmoffsuite on March 09 at 4:13 p.m.
Maybe the U of I couldn’t match the deal he got. Being a hot item in the field, he likely signed a major leauge deal that might also involve a collaboration with a private enterprise or business. Or perhaps he has intellectual property. His price tag, all things considered, might have been way too high.
jazzyvandal on March 09 at 5:02 p.m.
There’s no way UI could have matched Penn, an ivy league school and one of the most prestigious universities in the country. It sucks UI lost him. Wasn’t vet science on the chopping block at UI? The state doesn’t care about investing in higher ed, and it doesn’t surprise me when talented researchers leave the state.
moscow_minidoka on March 10 at 7:28 a.m.
DFO - Your question is a bit loaded, don’t you think?
This has little to do with “academic oversight…going downhill” at the UI. It has to do with the State of Idaho failing to fully fund a top-notch state university.
You can’t maintain “academic oversight” when you do not have the purchasing power to keep high-profile researchers from heading to greener pastures.
Joker on March 10 at 10:06 a.m.
U of I should have cloned their researchers and they wouldn’t care if he left.