Yale May Monitor Faculty's Consulting for Corporations

Yale University may next spring begin regulating all faculty members' outside employment to avoid conflicts of interest between academic and corporate research, Yale president A. Bartlett Giamatti said at a conference this week.

"Disclosure of consulting relationships, of relationships with outside companies, and with companies that sell to the university goods or services is. I believe, the best stay against conflicts of interest or conflicts of commitment," Giamatti said.

Discussion

Yale's policy will probably be more stringent than one revised at Harvard last spring whereby faculty members must report only those activities which are especially time-consuming or infringe on University research.

"Universities are anxious to be certain that what is conducted on their campuses is for the public good," said Richard G. Leahy yesterday, associate dean at Harvard for research and allied institutions.

"There is concern to avoid directed research which one can see growing out of faculty-corporate relationships." Leahy added.

Because each of the faculties at Harvard has its own policy for regulating members' commitments. Leahy said the University hopes to consolidate them under one plan soon.

Citing growing national concern, director of information at Yale Walter D. Littell '55 said yesterday. "The topic has been in the air, and every university president is thinking about it." Littell added that by setting guidelines, tensions between universities and corporations will "balance out" and the organizations can better work together.