In my senior year I had a professor that I simply could not understand. I wasn't just her thick accent, I had plenty of professors and TAs with heavy accents, it was also that she came to class completely unprepared, spoke very quietly (usually facing the chalkboard) and frankly just didn't seem interested in even trying to get her point across. I was not the only one who complained. She was not a competent instructor.
However, when I brought this up with the department, I was informed that her research brought in lots of grant money. I responded that since I was paying tuition to receive an education, I felt like I should be provided with at least a semi-professional level of service. This concept simply didn't register with some very intelligent people. They were there to spend other people's money to do research, and teaching was an unavoidable part of the deal. The concept that we, the students, were their customers simply didn't seem to register with them (or they didn't care?).
That was when I realized that academia was not for me.
And then a friend graduated and went to work for a company writing grant proposals. Seriously, there are professors spending other people's money to (find someone else to) beg for other people's money.
