As an internal medicine residency program director, I have welcomed the opportunity to meet medical students at residency fairs sponsored by the American Medical Student Association, but I don't like what they are evolving into.

At the October 1992 regional meeting in Cleveland, more than 90 programs, especially in family medicine and internal medicine, were represented. I was out of my league. My modest descriptive poster was surrounded by elaborate program curriculum displays that even included white-water rafting. Students who ran the gauntlet reached me, sheepishly holding shopping bags full of logo-emblazoned mugs, sweatshirts, backpacks, water bottles, and yo-yos. I was too embarrassed to give them our 39/c ballpoint pen. Even if I had been able to get their attention, a solo middle-aged program director was no match for the recruiting "teams," consisting in one instance of seven or eight apparent residents grabbing prospective recruits as they walked by. One team member was an attractive young woman whose smile pulled in students in droves. Later I learned that she was a hospital secretary.

Medical professionals have been outspokenly critical of health professionals' accepting promotional gifts from the pharmaceutical industry [1] and of their conduct of drug fairs [2]. In Cleveland, the pharmaceutical industry was nowhere in sight. To borrow from Pogo, maybe the enemy is us.