Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!rutgers!ames!pasteur!ucbvax!hplabs!hplabsz!taylor
From: andy@rocky.stanford.edu (Andy Freeman)
Newsgroups: comp.society
Subject: Re: University Education and Industry Needs
Message-ID: <1442@hplabsz.HPL.HP.COM>
Date: 19 Jan 88 21:59:38 GMT
Sender: taylor@hplabsz.HPL.HP.COM
Organization: Stanford University Computer Science Department
Lines: 37
Approved: taylor@hplabs

Dave Taylor said:

> I believe that Kodak should be reprimanded for trying to exert influence 
> through blackmail, and that the board of regents of the University of 
> Rochester should be reprimanded too; if they need to rely on the funding 
> of companies that force them to adopt racist policies, then they're in 
> much deeper than they think.

Whatever it was, it wasn't racism.  Kodak and the University had a very 
cosy relationship.  Kodak provided a lot of students and gave lots of 
money and the University skewed their classes to benefit Kodak.  Since 
this skew included proprietary info, Kodak was concerned when an employee 
of Fuji (or some other Japanese film maker) was admitted.  The problem 
wasn't race, it was disclosure of proprietary info.  Kodak's response 
was to threaten to withdraw their employees (who'd gotten used to 
treating Rochester as a Kodak training center, so it would be difficult 
for them to suddenly shut up).

The problem is that proprietary info shouldn't have been discussed openly.

-andy

ps - I also disagree with:

> Perhaps it should be legislated that a percentage of all corporate 
> income should be shifted into University accounts earmarked for 
> research purposes.

The University as basic research center is a cultural phenomena; basic 
research in Japan is industrial.  I see no reason to penalize a company, 
IBM is the best example, that does its own basic research.

Besides, why should Stanford have guaranteed income, but not SRI 
International? If you want to subsidize education, fine, but don't hide 
it under research.

Andy Freeman