Local Colleges Discuss Joint Termpaper Action

Lawyers for several Boston-area colleges met with Massachusetts officials yesterday to map out possible strategies against local termpaper companies, while a New York State agency revealed moves against a New York termpaper firm found last Wednesday with 23 stolen Harvard termpapers.

Daniel Steiner '54, general counsel to the University, said last night that he discussed possibilities of "concerted action" to end termpaper frauds yesterday with representatives from Northeastern, Boston University Boston College, and an assistant to the state attorney general.

Steiner refused to disclose what tactics had been discussed at the meeting.

In New York, Stephen Mindell, head of the state Consumer Protection and Fraud Division, announced yesterday that the state served a subpoena Friday against Minuteman Research, a termpaper firm in Queens which admits possession of approximately half of the Harvard papers stolen over intersession.

Mindell said the subpoena had not been reported earlier because the field investigator who served it "didn't report back immediately," While Mindell refused to discuss the nature of the subpoena--saying that to do so might harm the state's case--he did say the investigation "came from talks with Steiner about the Harvard thefts."

Alan Kawadler, owner of Minuteman Research, yesterday declined comment on the subpoena upon advice of his lawyers.

Kawadler said, however, that he had decided not to sue The Boston Globe for an article about the stolen termpapers which appeared last Thursday. "We don't like the way their story was worded--but you never know how these suits will turn out," he said.

Kawadler claimed last weekend that the Globe article put the blame for the termpaper thefts on Minuteman Research. He maintains that his company purchased the papers--without knowing they were stolen--from a man named "John." Attempts to locate John have so far been unsuccessful, he said.

Kawadler also said yesterday that he mailed a complete list of the stolen Harvard papers to President Bok.

"I sent them registered mail, and he should be getting them soon," Kawadler said. He added that Minuteman Research had received a dozen letters in the past week from authors of stolen papers asking for their return, but said none of the papers requested were in his possession.

A secretary at Bok's office said yesterday the list had not yet arrived.

Steiner said that his meeting with other college lawyers and the state official had not been prompted by the recent Harvard thefts. "The meeting was set up several weeks ago at the request of another college in the Boston area," he said, "but the recent Harvard termpaper thefts were discussed."

Steiner said he expected the universities to take action against termpaper abuses "as quickly as possible."

Over 50 papers from 12 courses have been stolen from Harvard within the past two weeks. Last Wednesday, Crimson reporters discovered a stolen termpaper at a four-day-old Boston firm, Termpapers Anonymous, and subsequently traced 23 of the papers to Minuteman Research. The other papers have not been found