The cloak of altruistic search for truth and selfless education of young minds worn by higher education obscures a self-serving, vast industry that sees nothing wrong in behaving like a cartel.  Do you think it is a coincidence that tuition levels at prestigious private universities are so similar to one another despite vast disparities in endowments? But rarely does an opportunity come to prove that universities do not compete on an open and fair basis.  Such an opportunity may be at hand in a lawsuit filed in North Carolina.  Paul Caron of Taxprofblog writes: Colleges and universities lure top faculty members away from competitor institutions all the time, and the practice is (generally speaking) entirely legal. But while some relish it, others consider faculty poaching, or actively recruiting faculty members from competitors, bad form and try to avoid doing it regularly -- especially to institutions in the same geographic area. A...(Read Full Post)