Goldstein, Yale Provost, Quits After Home Remodeling Dispute

Abraham Goldstein, provost of Yale University, resigned Sunday following a dispute with A. Bartlett Giamatti, president of Yale, over Yale-funded renovations on the provost's home.

According to the New York Times, Goldstein spent more than $100,000 to renovate his university-owned home two doors away from the president's house, on Yale's New Haven, Conn. campus.

As provost, the chief budgetary officer, Goldstein had jurisdiction over the funding and only Giamatti had the authority to overrule the expenditure.

In the statement announcing Goldstein's resignation, Giamatti said, "differences of opinion, in my opinion, have been growing for a period of months," Goldstein became provost in March, 1978.

Thomas O'Brien, financial vice-president, said yesterday Harvard now owns only 10-12 faculty homes and does not provide free renovations.

"For such a renovation, I would have to approve a loan that would be capitalized on the value of the home and repayed through rental payments," O'Brien said.

Sally H. Zeckhauser, president of the Harvard Real Estate Corp., said yesterday the University paints the exterior of every single family home it owns every five to eight years "just like any landlord."

"The Boks' house was repainted last year. Typically, to paint the exterior is fairly expensive so we like to cover it in the rents," Zeckhauser added.

Robert E. Kaufman, associate dean for finance and administration, said yesterday Goldstein's loss was a blow for Yale's new administration. "They're trying to build a team down there and I feel very badly for Yale," he said.

Stucco

The Yale Daily News reported Monday that among the expenditures on the house were:

$14,000 for resurfacing the house with stucco and repainting the exterior.

$12,455 for complete interior wall-papering and painting including painting several rooms more than once because "Mrs. Goldstein didn't like the shade," Lou Corvo, vice-president of the Local 35 union and a Yale plumber said.

I $6200 for electrical work, including six to eight weeks for two union workers moving light switches in the six bathrooms closer to the medicine cabinet.

In his letter to the Yale faculty accepting Goldstein's resignation, Giamatti said the resignation would be effective immediately rather than September 1, as Goldstein said in his letter