No It's Not.

Boy, with those kinds of baseless charges and twisting of facts we're off to a roaring start with this column.

First of all, the government has not paid Dartmouth one cent for legal costs. This is the first year the College tried to include legal expenses among indirect costs after a consultant hired by the (College recommended including them. He thought the school's overhead charges were too low.

The "chauffeur" is a campus mail deliveryman who is detailed to drive President Freedman to Boston when the a Lebanon airport is fogged in. Total charge to the government: a less-than-impressive $2,459.

The bills that the feds object to are part of "cost pools," or areas of expenses, agreed upon with the government. Nearly all of the charges deemed inappropriate this year have been withdrawn. The government is not being bilked.

Actually, Dartmouth over the years has refrained from charging all it is allowed to charge under current regulations. If accounts were settled fully, College Treasurer Lynn Hutton thinks, Dartmouth probably would come out looking downright parsimonious.

Yes, the regulations are complex. So it is natural that the College and the government would haggle over what should count as overhead.

While America's colleges and universities produce the world's best research, the United States is the only developed nation that does not heavily and directly support its universities. Indirect costs are not "profit"; they are contributions to the overall support of higher education. Without that help, this country would have little chance of solving some of its thorniest problems including AIDS.