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.

"Katie doesn't know anything. She does not have a grasp of the issues in New Haven," Michaelson said. "Whenever we all speak in public, it is obvious that she is just a front for the other Yale democrats who are helping her out," he said.

Michaelson said that only the university's corporation can prompt divestiture and that the Board of Aldermen has no influence over local tax rates.

"The board of alders has no special authority to regulate taxes on commercial property," Michaelson said. "It would not only be difficult to do but it would also be improper."

Michaelson added that the posters displayed "either ignorance of what an alder does or an attempt to mislead the Yale community into thinking that she will have influence in areas in which an alder has no authority."

Kenney admitted that her posters contained several errors.

"The wording of the fliers was bad and inaccurate in several places," Kenney said.

But she denied Michaelson's charge that she is ignorant as to the role of the Board of Aldermen in New Haven's government.

To this charge, Kenney said that she meant that, as an alderman, she would have more influence to bring about changes which she personally cared about. Divestment and housing the homeless "are things that I have been personally involved with and as an alderwoman I would continue to be a spokeswoman for these issues," Kenney said.

Junior Lisa Valentovish is the Republican candidate opposing Kenney and Michaelson for the seat on New Haven's board of thirty representatives who run the city along with Mayor Biagio DiLieto. The three students are vying to represent to the first ward, which is composed almost entirely of Yale students.

A Yalie has represented the city's first district for about a decade. LESLEY

School Receives $120,000 Grant To Help Literacy

Lesley College last month received a $120,000 grant from the General Cinema Corporation to support a project, run by the college and the Cambridge public school system, that helps children learn to read and teachers to teach.

The grant funds a course in literacy teaching strategies, a study group publishing a literacy learning handbook, and the training of a Hispanic tutor for bilingual Cambridge children, said Mary Snow, associate professor of education and special education at Lesley.

The project, which started in 1983, immerses elementary school students in literacy learning techniques developed by New Zealand educator Don Holdaway.

"The project is meant to implement what we know about how children learn to read and write," said Snow, adding that Lesley College teachers who participate in the project "serve as researchers as well as teachers."

Eight Cambridge schools participate in the project. The schools establish literacy centers that immerse children in reading and writing exercises. Activities include reading in groups, literacy events, and word processing instruction.