JOHN GALT'S FIRST JOB WAS IN WISCONSIN.  Despite the parlous job market, particularly in the evergreen disciplines, some of Bardiac's potential colleagues have backed out.

I've learned that a number of departments here have reported that candidates with signed contracts have backed out and said they've changed their mind. I can't blame them.

They signed a contract for one salary, and suddenly that salary has been cut by 8% or so. I wish I felt like I could get out.

Perhaps these hires are reacting to the expected fate of higher education at the hands of the hard-liners in the Republican Party, who have been given no reason to think kind thoughts about higher education; or perhaps they are reacting to the implications of increased autonomy for Madison combined with increased austerity for the former Wisconsin State University Conference colleges.  On the other hand, a rational actor will not submit to a hold-up before he or she has developed relationship-specific human capital.  In some academic disciplines, the only condition worse than being an entry-level Ph.D. without a signed contract is that of being a recent Ph.D. with very little portable human capital, known to those of you in administration as grants and publications.