Of all those, only two are likely to have a critical mass of students/graduates intern/work in institutions from which valuable information from the alleged Russian spies’ perspectives could be gleaned.
They don’t want to expend too much effort for too few halfway viable prospects.
Especially if they exponentially increase their risk of blowing their cover and/or end up on the next episode of “World’s Dumbest Spies”.
@cobrat - Heehee, Half way viable prospects? I hope no Manhattan College grads are reading this. Plenty of Manhattan College engineers end up in government service.
But, it is interesting that one of the alleged Russian spies living in Montclair arrested a couple years back had degrees from both NYU and Columbia.
this is why the government digs through your financial situation comprehensively before granting you access to classified information.
HarvestMoon: there are also professor that are at universities, not just students. Some of these professors are also involved in government work, and some of them have security clearances from past positions or current consulting responsibilities.
Cuba also targets U.S. universities, here’s an unclassified FBI paper: http://freebeacon.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Cuban-Intelligence-Targeting-of-Academia.pdf
Obviously, not surprising that Cuba and Russia would use similar tactics
True, but like some Manhattan College engineering major friends, most end up in hardcore engineering positions which aren’t optimal for the gathering of the kind of economic and financial intelligence the alleged Russian spies were looking for.
Also, part of being a viable prospect is having enough of a heavy debt burden so financial offers to do increasingly suspicious and dubious tasks for the sponsors becomes quite enticing/necessary.
The Manhattan College engineering alums I knew graduated with so little/no debt that this type of leverage wouldn’t be very effective with them.
Money only works with some people. Others are motivated by something as mundane as attention or flattery.
@soccerguy315: “this is why the government digs through your financial situation comprehensively before granting you access to classified information.”
I always thought so too. They did a heckuva job vetting Edward Snowden didn’t they? 10th grade drop out.
Cuba has an espionage program? For what? Is Namibia spying on us too?
You are definitely spying on Namibia though.
Unless they are baristas at the CIA Starbucks. 
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/at-cia-starbucks-even-the-baristas-are-covert/2014/09/27/5a04cd28-43f5-11e4-9a15-137aa0153527_story.html
Darn, you managed to find the one flaw in my otherwise brilliant scheme. Mr. Putin will be so angry with me!
The Namibians have one of the top ranked intelligence programs in the world, actually. No Namibian spy/infiltrator has ever been detected or captured by a foreign nation since the formation of the Namibian Central Intelligence Service in 1990. True facts!
@DmitriR The Namibian intelligence services are substantially corrupt.
Add this to the list of things to warn children about. To which they will, of course, roll their eyes.
How about cults? I asked my oldest if she’d seen or heard of cults trying to recruit college students, and she had no idea what I was talking about. Are the Moonies and Hare Krishna still around?
@Periwinkle
They literally run University of Bridgport…
I would imagine the “Moonies” have lost their appeal with the death of Sun Myung Moon in 2012, but, yeah, the University of Bridgeport is pretty indebted to them!
That Starbucks story was a hoot. How long before we see Carrie Mathison have a psychotic break on “Homeland” when the Langley barista mistakenly uses whole milk in her “double skinny latte”? 
In Soviet Russia, you don’t spy on enemy. Enemy spy on you!
They do have skill. Did you know that the CIA has NEVER captured a Namibian intelligence agent in the United States?? Not one.
I bet they’ve never caught a leprechaun, either. Absence of proof is not proof of absence.
Leprechauns specialize in corporate espionage, actually, but they have a pretty high evasion rate.
Snowden seems to think he is the true american hero.
If this wasn’t sarcasm, you might want to open a history book. 
here is one nice Cuban / American academic: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlos_Alvarez_(professor)