How To Make Friends

By WILLIAM DOWELL/NEW YORK

Psst! Want to make an easy 200 bucks? If you are a university professor specializing in business, math or computer science and are about to present your research paper at an academic conference, MICROSOFT will slip you a check for $200 to cover "travel costs." All you have to do is mention how Microsoft programs helped you in your work. The offer is part of a promotional program called "The Academic Cooperative," which maintains its own website on the Internet academicoop.isu.edu/Colleges/FacultySpeakers Program.html). The website, which runs on the University of Idaho's server, makes no overt mention of Microsoft, but the education-oriented promotional material for Microsoft makes the connection clear. While some scholars object--Sheldon Krimsky, a professor at Tufts University, who has been looking into corporate influence on scholarly journals, calls it "crass"--Microsoft contends that it is merely trying to be helpful. So far, only a handful of professors have taken the offer.

--By William Dowell/New York