From: vadik@cs.umd.edu (Vadim Maslov)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.soviet
Subject: Re: Professor goes on shooting spree
Date: 26 Aug 92 16:45:28 GMT
Organization: U of Maryland, Dept. of Computer Science, Coll. Pk., MD 20742

In article <87014@netnews.upenn.edu> sergei@upenn5.hep.upenn.edu (Sergei Borodin) writes:
>In article <59884@mimsy.umd.edu> vadik@cs.umd.edu (Vadim Maslov) writes:
>#
>#Montreal, Canada -- A Concordia University engineering professor went on a
>#shooting rampage in protest of unfair practices and not getting tenure at the
>#university.
>
>  Vadim, what does it have to do with soviet.culture? I guess, that 
> honorable Dr. is the kind of person Misha Verbitski is very proud of.
> You know what I mean - guys who have enriched soviet culture, according
> to M.V.'s postings (a couple of month ago).
>

It has to do with culture.soviet in some respect --
this Mr. Fabricant is xSovok. Another article from press:

-----------------------------------------------------------
This is from the Montreal Gazette, 25-August-1992

TWO DIE, THREE HURT IN UNIVERSITY RAMPAGE
By Aaron Derfel, Geoff Baker, and Elizabeth Thompson

Montreal- A shooting rampage at Concordia University left two employees dead
and three wounded Monday after a man walked into the university's main 
downtown building with a handgun.

    Police arrested Valery Fabrikant, 52, an associate professor in Concordia's
engineering and computer-science department.  He was questioned by police
before taken to the hospital complaining of chest pains.

[stuff deleted]
-------------------The End-------------------

There is another piece of news explicitly saying that he is emigrant
from USSR -- but I don't have it right now.

> Another fucking revolutionare?  Defenetely, shooting is the best
> way to solve scientific problems. And a machine gun has always been
> the best argument.

The case is more complicated. This guy was treated not very well by his
scientific nachal'niki, but he certainly over-reacted.

You may be interested in reading this too:
------------------------------------------
From: rasmussn@engin.umich.edu (Craig E Rasmussen)
Newsgroups: sci.research.careers
Subject: Concordia killings
Date: 25 Aug 92 14:18:04 GMT
Distribution: sci.research.careers
Organization: University of Michigan Engineering, Ann Arbor

The very sad news from Concordia is becoming all too common.  For those of us
who are lamenting the scarcity of faculty positions at universities, perhaps
we should not be too disheartened.  It has been my experience (8 years past
Ph.D.) that university departments can become very politicized and are often
full of the bitter infighting that we have recently witnessed.  Many
highly-rated universities hire as many as 5 junior faculty members for every
one that they intend to keep -- the philosopy is to let them fight it out and
may the best person win.  You can imagine the amount of stress that this
creates.

For those of you who may not be aware of other homicides in similar
circumstances I list the following:

1) In the late seventies a math professor at Stanford was killed by a graduate
student with a hammer.  I don't recall the exact number but the student had
been working on a Ph.D. for over ten (I think) years.

2) Last fall 3 professors at the University of Iowa were shot to death by a
former graduate student.  One of these victims I knew personally and respected
highly, both professionally and individually.  I received a letter from
him on the day he was shot.

3) At Utah State University a professor I knew was denied tenure and went
through a very agonizing period of time.  During this time he made a death
threat against another professor.  Fortunately, he didn't carry it out.
Unfortunately, he died (of natural causes) on the day he was to vacate his
office.


I have worked in academia and also as a physicist/engineer in industry (at
IBM) and for a couple of summers at a government lab.  Even for those of us
who enjoy pure research, I'm not sure that universities are the only, or even
the best place for research.  I think I can almost safely say that few full
professors in my field have the time to do much research.  They spend most of
their time teaching, serving on commitees, writing proposals, reviewing papers
and proposals, going to meetings, and directing the research of others.  I
recall a talk by a former provost at the University of Michigan (since moved
on to bigger and higher callings) that presented data claiming that only 30%
of a professors time was spend doing research.  And this was at first-tier
research universities.  At colleges the percentage was more like 3-4%.

Craig Rasmussen
Space Physics Research Laboratory
University of Michigan
rasmussen@sprlc.sprl.umich.edu

-----------------------------------------
-- 

Vadim Maslov,	Phones: (301) 405-2726, (301) 474-3473