Documents show ties between university, conservative donors

https://apnews.com/0c87e4318bcc4eb9b8e69f9f54c7b889

By MATTHEW BARAKAT
April 30, 2018

Virginia’s largest public university granted the conservative Charles Koch Foundation a say in the hiring and firing of professors in exchange for millions of dollars in donations, according to newly released documents.

The release of donor agreements between George Mason University and the foundation follows years of denials by university administrators that Koch foundation donations inhibit academic freedom.

University President Angel Cabrera wrote a note to faculty Friday night saying the agreements “fall short of the standards of academic independence I expect any gift to meet.” The admission came three days after a judge scrutinized the university’s earlier refusal to release any documents.

The newly released agreements spell out million-dollar deals in which the Koch Foundation endows a fund to pay the salary of one or more professors at the university’s Mercatus Center, a free-market think tank. The agreements require creation of five-member selection committees to choose the professors, and grant the donors the right to name two of the committee members.

The Koch foundation enjoyed similar appointment rights to advisory boards that had the right under the agreements to recommend a professor’s firing if he failed to live up to standards.

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Parsons, who now works for the activist group UnKoch My Campus, said the documents are strikingly similar to agreements the Koch Foundation made with Florida State University that caused a similar uproar.

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https://www.facebook.com/RBReich/posts/1943243335688253

Robert Reich
April 30, 2018·

It’s bad enough the Koch brothers are buying off politicians who will cut their taxes and gut regulations. But no less dangerous is their quieter and more insidious buy-off of colleges and universities. According to a new report, the Charles Koch Foundation has been given a say in the hiring and firing of professors in exchange for millions of dollars in donations to George Mason University.

The Koch brothers now fund 350 programs at over 250 colleges and universities, including many public institutions, across America. You can bet that funding doesn’t underwrite research on inequality and environmental justice. As states cut funding for higher education, wealthy interests are filling the void and pushing their views on young people.