From: stud6u3@bmtlh204.BNR.CA (6u student Kim Parsons)
Subject: Re: grad students killing professors
Keywords: need info
Reply-To: userid@bnr.ca
Organization: Bell-Northern Research Ltd
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 92 17:09:30 GMT


In article <Bxwu6G.DKy@news.cso.uiuc.edu>, mcwg9235@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu
(Marsha Woodbury ) writes:
|> While lurking around mensa this morning, it occurred (sp?)
|> to me that folks in mensa could help me with my quest--
|> i have a story about a guy named Fabrikant who went crazy
|> and killed some people on a college campus.  I don't think
|> this is Urban Legend, but I need the name of the school,
|> the country (Canada?  US?) and year, etc.
|> We mensans are smart, right?  So we flip out under
|> pressure, right?  I hope wrong.  If you can't tell me
|> about Frabrikant, let me know about any others you
|> have heard of.
|> Thanks in advance!
|> -- 

The shootings you are refering to happened at Concordia University,
Montreal, Quebec, Canada on August 24, 1992.

Fabrikant was a professor (Mech Eng), not a grad student, who shot
and killed four other professors and a secretary.  He claims he was
driven to do it by the suffering he had to endure as a result of
alleged financial and academic fraud at the university.

Fabrikant's students said he was calm and reasonable, but other 
faculty members say he was very bitter and was involved in a series
of feuds with the department, including a civil suit against the
chairman of the Mech Eng Dept.

The case is still in court, with Fabrikant acting as his own defence.
Concordia is investigating the fraud charges:  the first investigation
"found them to be completely untrue" and the second investigation was
"suspended for legal reasons".  A Maclean's investigation has
"uncovered evidence pointing strongly to major academic irregularities
in the faculty".

The basic fraud charges are that senior professors force younger
profs and grad students to include their names as authors of papers
that they had little or no input into.  Maclean's has evidence that 
this was actually occuring.  Fabrikant also charges that government
contracts given to Concordia professors involved financial fraud.  
These claims seem to be unsubstantiated. (My comments: whether the
fraud allegations are true or false, murder seems a rather stiff penalty!)

If you are really interested, I suggest you try to get a hold of the
Nov. 9 issue of Maclean's Magazine.  Maclean's is a Canadian news
magazine, but it should be available at libraries in the US.  The
Nov 9 issue was devoted to Canadian Universities: rankings, their
financial state, etc.  and it includes a special report on the 
Concordia shootings.  (this is where I got the above information).


------------------------
On a slightly different note:

There was another shooting incident at a university in Montreal
within the last few years.  In this case, a man walked in off the
street into L'Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal and killed 14 female
engineering students before killing himself.  I'm not too sure on    
the details anymore, but I believe the man's name was Marc Lepine.
He was neither a student or a prof: he was just an outcast on a 
rampage against women (particularly women in traditionally male
careers).  His hatred of women cost fourteen students their lives.

This tragedy sparked a lot of discussion and action (in Canada
anyway) about women in non-traditional roles, men's attitudes,
women's safety, gun control laws, etc. 

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

I hope this helps.  

Kim Parsons 
(University of Watreloo Computer Science/BNR co-op student)