re: Greg Gilmore's Faux Pas

A membership in the AAU was a big thing upto mid 80s but in today's world, of instant and worldwide collaboration , focused areas of non-standard research, funding from non governmental sources, it has been rendered obsolete and existing merely due to inertia and a misplaced sense of tradition in prestige.

Nebraska was kicked out a few years back because their medical center was deemed to be (after couple of decades) too far from the main campus (hence becoming a separate institution in itself) to be accepted as part of the main and therefore didn't meet the criteria for a single institute.

It is not to say that there is no use - just that the perceived advantages to being in it are incremental and not substantial.