MANHATTAN

SHRUM MAY TEACH AT NYU

John Kerry campaign adviser Bob Shrum’s new motto may be: If you can’t win, teach.The Democratic strategist who has played a role in eight losing presidential campaigns is in talks with New York University officials about teaching a course at the school.

A spokesman for New York University, John Beckman, wouldn’t say which course Mr. Shrum is considering teaching. Mr. Shrum, 61, a partner at the consulting firm Shrum, Devine & Donilon, has previously taught at Boston College and Yale University. NYU’s president, John Sexton, has made a point of recruiting well-known outside academics and other famous figures as short-term faculty members. Known for his populist politics and speech-writing skills, Mr. Shrum would be following in the footsteps of Clinton political adviser Dick Morris, who came to teach at NYU after leaving the White House.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

OLDEST KNOWN COPY OF ‘THE SCARLET LETTER’ SOLD AT AUCTION

The oldest known copy of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Scarlet Letter” sold at auction yesterday for $545,100, a world-record price for an American 19th-century literary work, Christie’s said.

The presale estimate was between $200,000 and $300,000 for 144 pages of a printed proof of the classic novel. The manuscript was purchased by an American book dealer who requested anonymity, a spokeswoman for Christie’s, Bendetta Roux, said. The manuscript, with some pages browned and fraying at the edges, has more than 700 corrections, many believed to have been made by Hawthorne’s himself.

– Associated Press

LAWYERS DEMAND MISTRIAL AFTER PROSECUTOR’S COMMENT

Defense lawyers demanded a mistrial yesterday in a terrorism trial after a prosecutor mocked a U.S. postal worker’s claim that he tried to protect America, telling him, “You’re quite a patriot.” U.S. District Judge John Koeltl immediately warned the jury in Manhattan to disregard the comment by Christopher Morvillo, an assistant U.S. attorney who had been questioning the postal worker, Ahmed Sattar.

– Associated Press

WTC WORKER DENIED COMPENSATION

A World Trade Center worker who rushed from home on September 11, 2001, to help rescue victims of the terrorist attack has been denied workers’ compensation because he wasn’t ordered to the scene by a boss, a court ruled yesterday.

The Appellate Division of State Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and the state Workers’ Compensation Board, and against Christopher Duff’s workers’ compensation claims for psychological injuries. Mr. Duff had won a claim for an unreported amount at two lower-level hearings, but an appeal was won by the state, according to the decision.

– Associated Press

CITYWIDE

LEVY ACCUSES KLEIN OF TRYING TO PIT PRINCIPALS AGAINST TEACHERS

In his weekly note to principals, Schools Chancellor Joel Klein lamented the city’s failure to reform the teachers contract.By late afternoon,the president of the principals union, Jill Levy, sent reporters an outraged statement about how her lawyers were responding to Mr. Klein.

“I think it shows a clear lack of leadership skills on the part of the Chancellor to blame the principals of our schools for his inability to arrive at a contractual agreement with his employees,” she said in the statement.

Mr. Klein’s letter never used the word “blame.” But Ms. Levy, whose members’ contract is one and a half years overdue, indicated Mr. Klein was trying to pit her union against the teachers union.

In response to the outburst, a spokesman for Mr. Klein, Keith Kalb, said, “The chancellor hears consistently from principals about work rules in the collective bargaining agreement that undermine their ability to improve school and student improvement. He wrote to principals to update them on the status of negotiations and express his hope that a return to the bargaining table would produce progress on these critically needed contract revisions.”

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

PANEL CLOSE TO DECISION ON VELELLA JAIL TIME

A panel of five appellate court judges could rule any day in the case against former state Senator Guy Velella, whose early release from jail in September has been the source of intense controversy.The panel heard arguments from lawyers in the case yesterday and is now deliberating on whether Velella, a longtime Bronx politician who was convicted in a bribery scandal, and two of his co-defendants should be sent back to Rikers Island. A lawyer for the Bloomberg administration, Drake Colley, told the panel that Velella should be sent back to jail because proper procedures were disregarded when the little-known Local Conditional Release Commission made its decision. Charles Stillman, said yesterday that the remade commission did not have the legal authority to change the decision.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

QUEENS

SLEEP DISORDER MAY HAVE PROMPTED CHANCELLOR’S DECISION CUNY

Chancellor Matthew Goldstein asked York College President Robert Hampton to step down after concern grew that Mr. Hampton had a sleep disorder that was affecting his job performance, a college source told The New York Sun.

Mr. Goldstein visited the campus yesterday to speak with employees and faculty members, who say they were surprised by the news of the president’s departure.

“The faculty are still in shock,” said Mary-Jo Kranacher, chairwoman of the faculty senate at the senior college in Jamaica, Queens. She said the chancellor didn’t go into details about why Mr. Hampton was asked to leave other than to say that he wasn’t “the right fit” for the school.

During his brief tenure, Mr. Hampton named a director of the CUNY Aviation Institute and increased the six-year graduation rate by 1.4 points to 29%, Ms. Kranacher said. The chancellor has appointed vice chancellor Otis Hill to temporarily take over administrative duties at the college after Mr. Hampton steps down on December 31.

Mr.Hampton is leaving a school with just fewer than 6,000 students. Among senior colleges, York students also have the lowest passing rates for the “proficiency exam” that CUNY students take to move on to their third year.

Before coming to York, Mr. Hampton served as provost for academic affairs at the University of Maryland.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun