Sony/ATV boss Marty Bandier helps fund a Syracuse University academic music business program, which came back to bite him recently when he had to face off in negotiations against one of the program’s graduates — who used what he learned to drive a hard bargain.

The deft alum was none other than DJ/producer Drew Taggart, who forms one half of the Chainsmokers with Alex Pall. “He’s now a big star in addition to being a smart guy. He took advantage of me when we negotiated a deal,” jokes Bandier. But the Sony chief clearly won the better end of the bargain — the Chainsmokers are now signed to Sony/ATV.

“We were negotiating with Taggart and he said, ‘You are not going to fool me with that.’ ” The Sony exec said he could see how the academic program works firsthand.

Bandier tells On the Money he’s made another gift to the scholarship program. The new money will help facilitate the program to move from the College of Visual and Performing Arts to the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communication at the university.

Bandier says 90 percent of students who take the program leave with a job. “I take an active interest in placing the kids. Whoever winds up in our industry, they’re not like fresh interns. They’re frightening.”