Friday, January 8, 1999

Microsoft Ends a Program That Paid Campus-Technology Leaders $10,000 a Year By LISA GUERNSEY Microsoft has quietly shut down a controversial program that paid nine academic-technology leaders $10,000 a year each to offer unspecified advice to the company. The program, called Microsoft Scholars, had included some of the biggest names in academic computing and had operated behind the scenes for the past several years. Microsoft officials and the scholars themselves had countered questions by saying that the company did not ask the scholars to endorse any Microsoft products. First described in a Chronicle story in August 1997, the program led some outside observers to raise questions about possible conflicts of interest, and to call on participants to describe the program openly. Many of the computing specialists who were tapped as Microsoft Scholars are common sights on the conference circuit, dispensing information about how computers are used at colleges and universities. But many of the scholars did not specifically mention the Microsoft Scholars program during their public presentations -- nor did they disclose that they were each receiving $10,000 from the company. Microsoft officials and the scholars themselves had countered the criticism by saying that the company did not ask the scholars to endorse any Microsoft products -- and did not even require that the participants talk specifically about Microsoft in the group's annual meetings. James G. Ptaszynski, the founder of the program, said the Microsoft Scholars were meant only to be a "brain trust" that would enable the company to stay on top of trends in higher education. But Roberto H. Bamberger, who managed the program for the first half of 1998, decided not to renew the program during the summer. "It looked like it made more sense to work with individuals more directly," he said. Mr. Bamberger said he would continue to have informal conversations with former members of the program about the higher-education market, as well as with other academic-computing experts who could help the company understand its customers. He said, however, that no checks -- for $10,000 or any other amount -- would be distributed. Asked why he had canceled the honorariums, Mr. Bamberger responded, without elaborating: "It really just didn't make sense." He added that Microsoft would continue to sponsor several programs that are run by former Microsoft Scholars. Microsoft is one of the sponsors of the Campus Computing Survey, which is conducted by Kenneth C. Green, a former Microsoft Scholar who is also a visiting scholar at Claremont Graduate University. The company also supports a few of the projects of a teaching, learning, and technology organization called the TLT Group, which is run by Steven W. Gilbert, a former Microsoft Scholar who is affiliated with the American Association for Higher Education. And Microsoft is one of the sponsors of The Technology Source, an on-line magazine about technology and education that is edited by James L. Morrison, an education professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and another former Microsoft Scholar. Background stories from The Chronicle: "Microsoft's Campus Brain Trust: $10,000 a Year for Providing 'Input'," 4/24/98 "Academics Hired by Microsoft Advise the Software Giant on Education Issues," 8/19/97