Opinion

Columbia U doesn’t want the public to know it puts greed ahead of excellence

Columbia University is hoping to limit the damage to its reputation from the Sheldon Silver corruption scandal.

As The Post’s Julia Marsh reported last week, the Ivy League school has asked a judge to seal documents that give details about more than $3 million it got from an Illinois law firm with ties to Dr. Robert Taub.

He’s the veteran Columbia researcher who was granted immunity in return for testifying how he took $500,000 in state research grants from the Assembly speaker in return for referring cancer patients to Silver’s law firm, tort powerhouse Weitz & Luxenberg.

After Taub’s relationship with Silver ended, he started referring mesothelioma patients to another law firm, Simmons Hanley Conroy — but not until its foundation sent Columbia a $3.15 million gift “in honor of Robert Taub MD.”

That seems pretty generous, but so was the potential payoff: The firm’s former CEO says Simmons pocketed $400,000 from the average mesothelioma settlement, which averaged $1 million, and Taub referred 29 patients.

Silver admitted getting $3 million in Taub-linked fees from Weitz & Luxenberg.

Apparently, there’s more to it than that, though: Court papers filed last week show Columbia’s lawyers want Justice Manuel Mendez to keep all the details of the Simmons firm’s gift away from public eyes.

All this is coming out because Taub is suing Columbia for trying to fire him from his $300,000-a-year position after his arrangement was exposed in Silver’s indictment.

Other court papers show Taub had been cited by Columbia for “a pattern of poor research practices” even before Silver’s conviction — but he was never disciplined until his role with the corrupt pol was exposed and he could no longer bring in the bucks.

Money — and faculty members’ ability to attract it — plays a determining role in Ivy League academia? No wonder Columbia so desperately wants to keep the lid on.