The current economic situation will doubtless be a major opportunity for those few who have the capital available, for now is the time to acquire great wealth that has been temporarily undervalued. For others, it will require creativity to take advantage of the chaotic situation, in which it is very difficult to determine the value of anything, from gasoline, to a loaf of bread, to highly skilled labor. With the advantage of a little liquidity, some universities are apparently taking action to “scoop up” new academic talent. What is quietly mentioned is that this is likely to happen at bargain basement prices.

RTFA: http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articl…

Amid the gloom of hiring freezes across much of academia, some New England colleges are seizing on the opportunity to scoop up the brightest newly minted PhDs to bolster their faculty ranks and gain ground on their competition.

A few are recruiting tenure-track faculty in droves even as the majority of colleges, most notably Harvard, have curtailed faculty searches as part of belt-tightening measures. Northeastern is conducting a search for 46 professors in fields ranging from nanotechnology to public health. Tufts is moving forward with 52 faculty searches. Others, including Emerson, Holy Cross, and Amherst, have created teaching positions.

They’re able to do so amid the economic downtown by cutting back in other areas: delaying construction, limiting travel, even whittling the number of applicants flown in for campus interviews.

“We look at it from a strategic perspective,” said Joseph Aoun, president of Northeastern. “Does it give us an advantage to hire when others may not be hiring? Yes. Financial challenge always provides you with opportunity, and this is one of them.”

Applicants, meanwhile, are flocking to the open positions, stiffening competition in an already cut-throat field.