Silber used BU-owned car last year
Former Boston University leader John Silber , who stepped down as chancellor in 2003, was using a BU-owned Lexus last year.
BU calculated that the cash value of Silber's use of the car in 2005-2006 was $8,773. He wasn't paid that money.
The new detail emerged last week when the university filed its annual report to the IRS. The car, purchased in 2003, is not a new benefit, but it was not itemized separately in past IRS filings, said spokesman Steve Burgay .
BU trustees voted over a decade ago to allow Silber to stay in his BU-owned mansion for life. In contrast, the car is not Silber's for life. The benefit has to be approved each year, Burgay said.
Silber, now a professor, has defended his generous compensation in the past, saying it was reasonable given his decades-long and successful -- albeit controversial -- reign at BU. And he said last year that he had given BU $2.6 million over the years. He did not return a call last week.
P.S.: A change in IRS rules also required BU to list the compensation for former president Jon Westling for the first time since he was ousted in 2002. Westling, who remains a professor at BU, earned $634,872 in pay and benefits in 2005-2006. Burgay said the compensation was a combination of what BU owed Westling under his presidential contract, and his pay as a professor.
CONSERVATIVE WIN: For the fourth consecutive time, alumni voters at Dartmouth College have elected a trustee who is a critic of the college's leadership and has conservative credentials.
Elected trustees make up half of Dartmouth's board. This year's victor is Stephen Smith , a law professor at the University of Virginia who clerked for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas . Smith won about 30 percent of the votes under a system where alumni could cast votes for as many of the four candidates as they wanted. About 18,000 people, 28 percent of alumni, voted.
As with the last three elected trustees, Smith lacked approval from an alumni group that traditionally has named a slate of candidates.
Smith said he wanted to help a college that had lost touch with some of its values. Critics said he and his supporters had a secret, conservative agenda. Smith and one of his opponents each spent tens of thousands of dollars campaigning.
Smith said he thought everyone would now put the election drama behind them. "All of us are looking forward to rolling up our sleeves and making Dartmouth an even better institution," he said.
DEFINING DIVEST: Massachusetts Institute of Technology said last week that it would divest from companies doing business in Sudan. Umm. Maybe.
Actually, what MIT said in a baffling statement was that it would divest "as necessary," from companies whose actions "are abhorrent to MIT." And, it would examine its portfolio to see what Sudan-linked companies might fall into that category.
Eric Reeves , a Smith College professor and a founder of the Sudan divestment movement, said it was the most peculiar announcement he'd seen from any of the roughly 50 colleges that have divested from Sudan because of the genocide in Darfur.
Reeves hoped it was just a preliminary declaration of values that would be followed soon by specifics. But an MIT spokesman said it was meant to be the university's last word on the matter.
"We are not satisfied," said MIT graduate student and activist Kayvan Zainabadi . "It almost seems like they want to appease the MIT community, so we'll leave them alone."
Campus Insider runs on alternate Sundays with Ask the Teacher. To submit tips, e-mail campus@globe.com. This is the last Campus Insider column of this school year. It will go on summer hiatus and return in the fall. Ask the Teacher will appear next Sunday, then also go on summer break. 
