If you look at the company's financials, you'll understand:
stock price at the lowest level in over 5 years, and has recently dropped about a third of its value. Income was flat 2007 to 2008, after showing steady climb in previous years. Yet their R+D expenses grew by 30 million. Investors are feeling that their R+D is not generating new sales, and are punishing the company.
When stock prices fall like that, it causes hundreds of millions of dollars of stock value losses to the top tier executives, who usually own A LOT of stock, so OBVIOUSLY, every department in the company is asked to review their operations.
First instinct in the sampling department is to put all sampling on hold until the top guys can have a meetng, figure out what to do, decide what's their next move, have another meeting, figure out how to sugar-coat the overall picture to the shareholders, etc, etc.
Keep in mind that the cost of 500 students ordering samples is about $50,000, including the FexEx shipping, while Microchip's yearly losses from sales of capital equipment and other small mistakes they made is 2-3 million dollars, which is , in turn, the smallest loss number on their financial statements, amidst revenues of $1.1 billion, and overall expenses of $240 million.
Whether they sample or not, that cost is below the noise floor in their annual reports.
The guy(s) in charge of sample administration is in a precarious position.
If he comes to an operations meeting armed with documentation that shows the sample program is being misused -- that's the end of the sample program. AND ... that's the END OF HIS JOB
In good economic times, when companies are generally hiring, that employee could be confident that, if his department closes, he will be re-staffed in another department.
BUT TIMES ARE BAD currently. Companies are NOT hiring, but starting to shrink staff.
IF his department closes, there will most likely NOT be another position waiting for him elsewhere in the company.
That guy needs to be smart, to look after his own interests too.