Business School Forces Prof To Withdraw $100,000 Offer to Students

In a dispute that raises questions of where the classroom ends and the real world begins, a Columbia Business School professor last week was forced to withdraw a $100,000 offer he made to his students for finding a company that he decided to use in a takeover bid.

Asher B. Edelman, an adjunct professor at the Columbia Business School who also owns a firm specializing in corporate takeovers, offered the money as part of his seminar, "Corporate Raiding: The Art of War."

The final project of the course required students to research a company that they thought might be ripe for takeover, and Edelman offered a finders fee of $100,000 to any student whose research he actually implemented, said Frederick A. Jacobi '43, the school's director of public affairs.

The business school faculty was unaware of Edelman's offer until early this month, when one of the 80 students who had applied for the 15-person seminar complained to the school's dean of students, Jacobi said.

When informed of the offer, Dean of the Business School John C. Burton brought it before the school's committee on instruction. The members of the committee "were all adamant that monetary incentive is inappropriate to an institution of higher learning," Jacobi said.

Burton asked Edelman to withdraw his offer, but Edelman said he couldn't withdraw an offer made in good faith. When faced with the threat of no longer being able to teach the class, he agreed to withdraw the offer only if Burton would come to class and explain the situation, Jacobi said.

In an address to the students in the seminar on Tuesday, Burton said: "Both I and the faculty wish it to be very clear that the action is not a criticism of Professor Edelman, who has behaved in a manner honorable and in good faith throughout discussions of this matter, and has accepted the decision of the faculty despite his disagreement with it."

Despite the dean's ruling, after his announcement the class participated in a straw poll in which 13 of the 14 students attending sided with the professor, Jacobi said.

Edelman refused comment on the controversy, but told The New' York Times, "What bothers me most is that this is a violation of the integrity of the classroom, of my right to teach after I was hired, and, of the student's right to learn." YALE

Mud Flies in University Alderman Election

Controversy has swept the Yale campus as Yale students battle it out for their one anticipated seat on the New Haven Board of Aldermen.

Last week, the mud was flying as several candidates accused Yalie senior Katie Kenney, the Democratic candidate for the seat, of using misleading statements to gain votes.

Specifically, Kenney's opponents have objected to a series of fliers around campus proclaiming that, if elected, she will work to bring about Yale's divestment of its South Africa-related holdings and to lower Yale's property tax rate, among other things.

Sophomore Andrew Michaelson, a Green Party candidate, said the fliers exaggerate an alderman's influence over the university. The Green party is composed mostly of liberals and environmentalists who are dissatisfied with the Democratic party.