Stanford’s Woes

Gardner’s column is well-taken but misses the point by a mile. I don’t believe that Stanford did anything wrong. Anybody who has dealt with the federal government in defense, health care, education, etc., knows that overhead is a negotiated item. If the overhead charges for the Stanford research grants were out of line why did the government pay the bill? They paid because some government auditor approved the charges. Now we have a post-mortem review by some other bureaucrats who are raising hell. Most likely, for political advantage.

NORMAN N. ALPERIN, Rancho Palos Verdes