Universities -- above all -- are supposed to be repositories of knowledge, creators of truth, oases of freedom an dintellectualism, in a world that too often barely values these traits at all -- and this kind of conduct is absolutely indefensible:

On campuses nationwide, professors and administrators have passionately debated whether their universities should accept money for research from tobacco companies. But not at Virginia Commonwealth University, a public institution in Richmond, Va.

That is largely because hardly any faculty members or students there know that there is something to debate — a contract with extremely restrictive terms that the university signed in 2006 to do research for Philip Morris USA, the nation’s largest tobacco company and a unit of Altria Group.

I just can't understand how people like this look at themselves in the mirror in the morning.