Carollo, the student who asked for employment tips, said that all Watson gave her was a generic description of the agency's hiring criteria. But he is able to bring some insight and information from his CIA work into the classroom, and counts it as a plus for his students. We have some of the best data, some of the best international trade and economic information, all of which is from openly available sources, but we have the ability to gather it all into a conveniently used format. Watson's students say that the best thing their professor has to offer is his real-world experience. Jonathan Knight is an associate secretary for the American Association of University Professors in Washington, D.C., which often represents faculty interests on campus.
Knight specializes in professional ethics.
Using recruitment ads like this one, the CIA pitches clandestine careers to a new generation. He compares the situation to that of business executives who teach classes but maintain secrets about their work to protect corporate property rights. Watson's acceptance by his students may be a measure of how much things have changed on campus since the heady days when the CIA could do no right. But for some, the issue of trust has not gone away. Dennis Markatos, a senior economics and international studies major who co-founded the activist group Students United for a Responsible Global Environment, says students just can't trust the CIA to make full disclosures about what it's doing on campus.