Is there something you are not telling us?

Nature recently ran a story about, what it termed, the "Arizona experiment," changes that have been occurring here at Arizona State University. The article briefly quoted Robert Pettit, the former director of the Cancer Research Institute (CRI) which was closed in 2005. Today's Nature features a letter by John C. Knight which states that:

[A]fter disagreements with the university's president Michael Crow, Pettit was removed from the position and the institute was effectively closed down. All the personnel were transferred to the university's Biodesign Institute. After a year of problems and disputes, which included measures taken to stop them obtaining any new funding, the group was terminated.

Knight then directs readers to this article in Phoenix New Times which is essentially a hit-job on Crow. I'm not going to take a position on whether or not Michael Crow is the devil incarnate; what I will point out is that Knight failed to let Nature know that he was in fact a former CRI group member, a "friend and colleague" of Pettit, and that he, like Pettit, continues to be employed at ASU.

More like this

In a follow up to this story, Virgil Renzulli (VP of Public Affairs here at ASU) has this to say: At ASU, as at most American research universities, positions funded by external grants are completely dependent on that funding. Robert Pettit, former director of the university’s Cancer Research…
X-STEM - presented by Northrop Grumman Foundation and MedImmune - is an Extreme STEM symposium for elementary through high school students featuring interactive presentations by an exclusive group of visionaries who aim to empower and inspire kids about careers in science, technology, engineering…
The following is a repost of a Facebook Post by Michael Mann. I don’t think this needs any comment from me. The original is here. Begin Repost Several colleagues have notified me of the following email that has been sent to a presumably broad group of researchers and academics by John Droz of…
It has just been announced that unpopular Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld is "stepping down". This is no doubt a positive step for the Bush Administration, the nation, and the world as a whole, but it comes as too little too late, as the disastrous Iraq war has already cost the lives of…