OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT

[ 25 May 1985
ct

Alexander D. Forger, Esq,
Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy
One Chase Manhattan Plaza

New York, N.Y. 10005

Dear Alex:

I hope you will not think me to be flip in sending along the en-
closed charming essay about "Mr. Ponzi and His Scheme." When I noticed
this in a Harvard magazine, I couldn't resist the fanciful speculation
that Harvard's recent fund-raising success might be attributable to some
variation on a Ponzi scheme! Of course, we would never engage in any
such scheme here. But fund-raising fantasies, like all fantasies, pre-
sumably encompass such notions.

On our serious business, Paul Cameron has mentioned to me that you
will put pen to paper regarding one or more central passages that we
can consider in our revised Consulting Policy. Although I believe we
should not shift to Trustees the burdens of what might be regarded as
“staff work," your superb draftsmanship no doubt would be extremely help-
ful in clarifying the ways in which we pull together several perspec-
tives. I would greatly enjoy talking with you about your draft whenever
you have it ready.

&

Furthermore, you should know that we are continuing to discuss the
subject with the faculty. We had a candid and forthright review of the
issues with about half the tenured faculty at a meeting of the University
Senate on May 20. Frankly, my sense of the meeting -- there was no vote
or decision ~- was that there is a growing appreciation of the need for
the University, through the Board and officers, to protect the Universi-
ty's mission as well as our property. While no one enjoys additional
regulation, there is a high level of agreement that some routine and com-
plete disclosures are in order.

The intricacies surrounding when "prior approval," and "follow-up
approvals," are necessary continue to be complex. Interestingly, a few
members of the faculty argue strongly that there must be prior approval
for all of the non~-tenured faculty. There was also considerable discus-
sion about how to treat situations in which a member of the faculty says
"no change" from the past year's report: Josh cogently notes that the
longer a consulting arrangement goes on, the more likely it is to be a
close and potentially entangling one. But many members of the faculty --
who have "minor" consulting arrangements -—- believe that it would be just

one more unnecessary bit of paper work to file a form when the involve-
ment is trivial.
Page 2
Forger
5-25-85

What the Senate had before them was a package including our past
policy and an updated draft (see enclosed).

I also enclose material from the Spring 1985 issue of Science, Tech-
nology, and Human Values. I think you will enjoy the articles by Howard
Bremer, Clifford Grobstein, and Robert Rosenzweig. Also see the enclosed

articles on "Lessons from Asilomar" and "Academic/Industrial Cooperation
for Economic Growth."

Best personal regards,

Sincerely,

Kad

TT ~
Rodney W. Nichols

Executive Vice President

Enclosures

cc: Paul Cameron
William H. Griesar