Meanwhile, At Harvard

Amid Columbia's turmoil, Harvard had its own scholars-and-dollars flap last week. In a new book, The Empire Builders: Power, Money & Ethics Inside the Harvard Business School (Morrow; $19.95), Author J. Paul Mark, an ex-Harvard researcher, accuses many B-school profs of stealing ideas from students and using them to get consulting fees and corporate directorships. Dean John McArthur censures the book for "hundreds of factual errors and fabricated events." Typical of the screaming wounded: Professor Michael Porter, who claims Mark never talked with him before writing a tale of alleged pirating of student concepts in a business-strategy plan for the National Football League. There is talk of libel suits against author and publisher. But Mark stands by his work, saying, "It doesn't surprise me they're not lining up to tell Dean McArthur they spoke with me. It doesn't enhance their standing at the school."