Goldman Says Rights Unit Will Continue Probe of Columbia’s Decision on Contract

Rabbi A. Bruce Goldman, who has been named as one of two rabbinical student advisers at Columbia University, said today that the City Human Rights Commission would continue its planned investigation of the decision by the university not to extend his contract for the coming year.

The controversy over his non-appointment led to a university decision last week to reorganize the school’s religious advisory program under which a new student group, the Radical Jewish Union, selected Rabbi Goldman, and five other student groups chose an Orthodox rabbi, Charles Sheer, as their advisers.

Rabbi Goldman said also that if the Human Rights Commission sustained his complaint that he had been dismissed for his support of student rebellions at the university last spring, he would not accept reappointment under his cancelled contract but would seek compensation for “damages at all levels.” He assumed his new duties as one of the two Jewish advisers on July l. He said Rabbi Sheer would begin his assignment Aug. 1.

Under the prior agreement, religious advisers, Jewish and Christian, were named and their salaries paid by church and synagogue agencies approved by the university, including the Jewish Advisory Board, an alumni organization which declined to renew Rabbi Goldman’s contract for the 1969-70 academic year. The board is being reorganized into a foundation with student and faculty members, as well as alumni which will meet Rabbi Sheer’s expenses. Rabbi Goldman said private sources would cover his counselorship expenses. He said he did not know whether he and Rabbi Sheer would occupy the same office on the campus or separate ones.