I agree, Nancy's question regarding the seriousness of certain professors in keeping with the mission of the University is a very important one. I don't wish to impute any blame on them, so I think the most charitable interpretation we can give for such actions is to take Adrian's approach and say that they either want to get established or have something impressive on their CV. It's a sad state of affairs, but as far as I can tell, this is the way a lot of the modern academy works.