"The letter described the procedure as common in the creation of named and chaired professorships"
Did you mean that this procedure is common just at George Mason or did you mean this is common at universities in general?
Perhaps in a follow-up article you should clear up what was unique to George Mason versus what is common nationally with donors and chairs but George Mason is being singled out for because of the university's ties to the Kochs?
4
IN the 1970's the Kochs, and many others on the far right, realized they needed to legitimize their greedy, self-righteous approach with the general public. And so began a huge push in the evangelical circles, and the right wing business circles to create schools and "universities" (like Oral Roberts, etc.) that would give "degrees" for ideologically pure thinking. The influences of marxism, and semiotics and Keynesian economics were dismissed and we are now left with the detritus of decades of shallow teaching, and shallower students and adherents.
In these programs students learned to swallow what was clearly untrue --which trained them for their destinies on the nation's sofas watching Fox and Friends with rapt admiration for falsehoods dramatically told.
But the other aspect of this story, that needs to go viral, are the hundreds of other rich people who tell university presidents who should, and should not, be hired as wield their pens, ready to write their checks. It is an epidemic, certainly in the CUNY system, where I have direct knowledge of hires by one of the Presidents over the objections of faculty because a rich donor wanted to get a friend a job.
Every instance of this kind of influence is an irresponsible wrong committed against students, and the search for knowledge.
24
No wonder economists Alex Tabbarok and Tyler Cowen spew such blatant nonsense. Would love to know how much they are paid by Koch...
8
Campaign contributions as they are in the US was always going to lead to more and more corruption.
8
No surprise here. Read the book Dark Money by Jane Myer and one will understand Koch’s goals and other wealthy donors fix on who teaches our college students. Disgusting!
19
Talk about political correctness!
Shameful. Just shameful.
5
Wonder what Koch Bros got in exchange for the $10 million to rename the law school after Scalia? Odd reason for a donation.
6
Hard to believe that George Mason University has just figured this out. The Kochs funded a chair (I believe) in their Economics Department and the professor from that department who unseated the Congressional second-in-command Virginia representative, Eric Cantor, was a Koch plant all the way. People kept acting so surprised that he pulled it off. He didn't come from out of the blue as reported. He was supported by right-wing media all the way as a protege of the Kochs. Now, they are born again virgins who knew nothing about it.
47
This example of corruption by Koch money is hardly unique. Read Jane Mayer’s “Dark Money.” It’s filled with similar Koch sliminess. The important point about these largely secret efforts, though, isn’t that they work against the interests of most Americans, but that they are very numerous and very successful.
We need to create new laws to stop them, vigorously apply relevant laws that already exist, and dump the ones (like Citizens United) that prop the sluice gates open.
14
The obscene thing is that this is subsidized by the taxpayers. The Koch brothers get a tax deduction for this, so we all pay more to make up the difference.
Even if they cannot pick new faculty, they can pick and choose which existing faculty the donate to. It has the same effect of wrapping their ideas in academic credibility.
12
I’d really like to hear if this what SCOTUS intended with Citizens United when they see the likes of Trump and the handful of billionaires controlling our country.
When they see the law attacked, possible treason/collusion/crimes, do they hold a sense of proud accomplishment or political molding of the Constitution?
When they see purveyors of lies denying Sandy Hook and the loss of babies, are they with Alex Jones saying whatever he wants?
When they see a Deputy Attorney General threatened by legislatures and a man who has dedicated his life to the pursuit of justice, do they ever second guess the sheer influence that very few have on this country.
Do they know history enough to know judges are next? First the media, then law enforcement and then judges. Will they start to change this course or hammer the final nail on our democracy?
12
Gee, and here I thought it was all those liberal colleges that were unduly influenced by all those liberal billionaires. (she said sarcastically)
10
“We can have democracy, or we can have the concentration of wealth in the hands of a few. We cannot have both.”
Louis Brandeis, Supreme Court Justice
America cannot afford billionaires. America needs a maximum wealth law so that an individual must retire when. she/he really has reached it.
16
We may not have the big money, but we do have our VOTE. The ONLY solution - get to the polls and boycott the GOP.
13
Sadly, I was going to complete my graduate degree at GMU. Glad to have read this disturbing article. There are other schools in the area that are going to get my tuition money. I hope GMU cleans up its reputation.
13
Like their oil, the Kochs pollute our educational and political system and here we were worried bout the Russians.
10
It has always amazed me that George Mason, with its clear right-wing bent and entanglements with right-wing money, is also a a public university. I never understood how a public university could get away with being such an obvious tool of dark money.
14
The Kochs have been instrumental in promoting anti-science, anti-education, anti-academia, anti-environment views, because their politics are based on deliberate falsehoods. Our current President shamelessly promotes these anti-truth and anti-democracy positions. China, through their Confucius Institutes on many American campuses also seeks to promote propaganda as truth. The scary thing is how effective and how pervasive these “pay to play” schemes have been.
9
Please feel free to check out the trading platform at U Richmond, my child attended there and it was our belief that they were dictating curriculum, too.
8
The relationship between Charles Koch and George Mason University is well documented in Nancy Maclean's book, Democracy in Chains. The Koch brothers influence runs deep and the outcomes are terrifying.
10
In the book DARK MONEY, Jane Mayer documents many, many cases of not just the Kochs but other right wing billionaires that take over entire departments.
7
According to the legal definition of a gift, the Koch donations were not a "gift" and should be taxed accordingly. A fine example of the pernicious influence of the Koch brothers.
11
Those agreements may have been old but were in place with the Koch brothers bought and paid for the hiring of law faculty at George Mason University. The goal was to influence young legal minds to adopt Libertarian views.
6
George Mason is already notorious; this is hardly surprising. The Koch brothers never "give" things - they only buy things.
6
Any professor hired under one of these agreements with the recommendation of the Koch brothers or more realistically the bequest of the Koch brothers should resign.
5
We're finding out just how corrupt a country can become when income inequality is this great - the Koch boys are worth billions, their net worth soars on investment income and oil subsidies alone, and they play politics like a blood sport.
They use the money to buy GOP politicians because in the USA, owning pols is legal and it's not considered corruption.
Decades of Koch money and ALEC has given us a completely corrupt GOP, addicted to Koch money, and fearful of offending these greedy boys, who can't stop grasping for more.
hem.
6
This is old news.
It's been going on for decades.
Read Jane Mayer's "Dark Money" and Nancy MacLean's "Democracy in Chains."
They Koch's have influence with professors at over 200 universities.
It is the reason Libertarianism has as many followers as it does.
It is the reason there is an UnKochMyCampus organization.
http://www.unkochmycampus.org/
And what the Koch's get for their investment in the name of Libertarianism lower taxes and less regulation and more wealth.
And what we get are bigger deficits, cuts to education, and more pollution.
10
Jane Mayer's "Dark Money" lays out how the Koch's use academia to churn out right-wing propaganda, yet this is just the tip of the iceberg; the Koch's are destroying America. Many of the things we read are written at the behest of the Koch's (even the Times regularly gives prime space to the editors of Reason, which is funded by the Koch's). If you see something politically outrageous and highly dangerous to American democracy happening, like the Republican Tax Bill, chances are that the Koch's are behind it. In today's Times alone we have a separate article on how Tea Party Republicans/House Freedom Caucus leaders Mark Meadows and Jim Jordan seek to stop the Mueller investigation and protect Trump by destroying the Justice Department and Rod Rosenstein. This is happening because the Koch’s, who planned the formation of the Tea Party movement over 10 years before it appeared, fully financed it, and made it appear to be a grassroots movement, are giving them their marching orders. The movement was created to make America into a right-wing Plutocracy. Every Tea Party chapter was financed by the Koch's, and run by a paid right-wing operative. It's laughable that right-wing pundits are forever looking for "a coup" anywhere. You only need to look at the Koch's and everything they've bought to find it. These men have hijacked the American political process and are about to take the Justice Department down because it, like American democracy itself, threatens their ambitions.
5
The pride of Wichita. If that doesn't say everything, nothing WILL.
2
I've been attending Mason's engineering school for the past two years, but will be finishing my remaining two at the University of Virginia. Koch brother money is a bit of a running joke amongst the students, but aside from me needing to take a mandatory econ class I haven't really felt their influence. The engineering school has some great programs and unless they're thinking about econ or law I wouldn't let this revelation deter anyone from coming here.
1
Some years ago, I was introduced to George Mason University's Koch connection by Jane Mayer's book, "Dark Money."
I definitely recommend that book to acquaint folks with how the brothers Koch began cultivating various gardens following Barak Obama's first Presidential victory.
Ms. Mayer continues to follow the funding trail, and her articles in The New Yorker magazine are also well worth a read.
15
I had long been troubled by much of the writing coming from George Mason economics and finally just turned away completely. What a shame.
14
Any department that hired a faculty member under one of these agreements should lose its accreditation.
41
RE:
“To be clear, we champion academic freedom and do not seek to influence the hiring practices of university departments nor have input on curricular or research decisions,” the letter said. If you have input on the selection of candidates, then you have influence on curriculum or research. The purpose of said grants with stipulation is to influence leaning, the donation in order to rename the Mason law school is an example of trying to influence the leanings of this school and its faculty. I can think of many other justices that deserve have a law school name after them over Scalia, who's opinions more times than not were based more on his political leaning and religious beliefs than on the US Constitution. These are just another example of the wealthy overreaching in trying to tilt this country into a totalitarian oligarch society.
20
Funny thing about the largess of the Koch's and other billionaires, the people who can be bought for the measliest of sums, the true bottom-feeders, are our representatives. A few thousand dollars in campaign contributions, probably what sits under the Koch's couch cushions, is enough to buy a groveling slave for years at a time. Oppose this to the millions required for influence on campus or a think tank.
19
We've known for a long time that Mercatus was an arm of the Koch web, tainting everything they did.
The attempt to deflect this by saying the agreements have expired doesn't cover those current professors whose careers are now tarnished by having been put up by the Koch Foundation.
18
A bad university to be avoided at all costs. Luckily there are good schools, uncompromising with dignity intact.
20
Surveillance keeps undermining the grimy mission of these powermongers who demand to purchase influence. Congratulations to the UnKoch soldiers.
24
Influence over academics is the only reason the Kochs give money to universities. Period.
30
We need campaign finance reform immediately.
All Dark Money, all Corporate Money, all Foreign Money needs to be removed from our political system.
In this case, the Trustees who knew about the "contractual attachments" that went along with this fake "gift" should resign. This is a Public University and private money should be welcome but should hold no political sway whatsoever.
32
don't forget the Koch's past drive to influence (for the worst) stem cell research.
12
can a purported democracy (or a democratic republic) pay such dues to money that a handful of rich guys have more to say about government than all the rest of the people combined?
public campaign financing is the most important thing we can do to neutralize the loud speech and disproportional power of money.
13
George Mason's books (and econ faculty) are Koched.
11
Yeah, Obsolete..... from 2006 -2009 old world history!!! The seeds of their planting are being harvested across the country by now......10 years later! With professorships, academic chairs, think tanks, professional 'expert opinions' and the continual drum beat of 'dont tax me, dont regulate me, and by the way, yes I want that big gov't contract!!!' These two were in the diaspora for 30-40 years, now they are in the lime light!!! Hey Koch brothers, remember what your dad told you years ago..... "The Spouting whale ..... Gets the Harpoon!" Your time has come! Yea reap what yea sows. !!
11
Luv it Jersey... we're with ya on the coast.
1
I'm a graduate of George Mason and to see it today is to see an entirely different university. There are so many money names around the campus it makes your head spin.
I used to give to the college of arts and sciences, but when the Kochs bought the law school, I figured GMU had enough money.
24
The Koch Brothers, born into wealth, the Koch Brothers who have never known a second of need, a second of wondering how to pay for a family members healthcare, these entitled selfish greedy jerks, believe that they and only they know what is right for America.
20
While donations to colleges which may impact academic freedom is a concern as shown here, it's worth noting the David H. Koch Fund for Science is a major furnder of NOVA, the PBS cutting edge program with high no holds barred regarding politics. Are the Koch's who are also big supporters of Lincoln Center playing both sides of the street ? They seem happy to post their name with some organizations many view as liberal leaning while concealing support which may be targeted to influence conservative thinking as in the case George Mason University.
4
“To be clear, we champion academic freedom and do not seek to influence the hiring practices of university departments nor have input on curricular or research decisions,” the letter said.
To be clear, that is a bald faced lie. Read "dark Money" or "Democracy in Chains" if you can't figure out what the Kochs are up to simply by what is reported on in the news.
To them, Liberty means all the protections society can offer them, and rules that favor them to accumulate obscene wealth, with absolutely no responsibility or obligation to the society that lets that happen. They want to be aristocracy and create a modern feudal society.
13
"........we champion academic freedom and do not seek to influence the hiring practices of university departments nor have input on curricular or research decisions". Oh yeah, we certainly can believe that statement; that's why they donate tens of millions of dollars and make faculty recommendations.
And the beat goes on.
3
Cozy arrangement, isn't it. Bribe or otherwise induce politicians to cut university funding, then swoop in to make up part of the loss, with ideological strings attached.
Jake Gittes: Why are you doing it? How much better can you eat? What could you buy that you can't already afford?
Noah Cross: The future, Mr. Gittes! The future.
8
This kind of Koch brothers control over faculty hiring at both George Mason and Florida State isn’t really news. Jane Mayor’s book “Dark Money” mentions the subject, and that’s hardly first place I’d read of this Koch university influence.
Now the NY Times is very guilty of publishing OpEd essays by people from the Mercatus Center (at George Mason) absent any mention of the fact that Mercatus is almost entirely Koch funded and controlled.
Here’s a 2014 Washington Post list of universities that the Kochs have given significant monies to:
Virginia, Southern Methodist University in Texas, West Virginia University, Utah State University, Kansas State University and the University of Arizona.
What part the Kochs have in faculty hiring for these other schools, not the aforementioned George Mason and Florida State, is unclear.
10
The tea party what ever happened to them clowns.
They have had an enormous influence in perpetuating the myth of our failing public K-12 system & the defunding of public schools. ALEC owns state legislatures that then send up ALEC written bills designed to weaken public education, environmental regulations, worker protections, unions etc..
I wouldn’t believe for one minute they aren’t influencing hiring at GMU. They want professors in place in higher ed who will promote their ideas! They’re paying for it!
8
The Greening of America on steroids.
2
I do think that Jane Mayer's work is required reading. Soon our academic institutions will be as untrustworthy as our government and our pharmaceutical companies. Money talks all too easily, bypassing truth and principle. Allowing a few opinionated billionaires to determine thought, regardless of real evidence, is why we now approach the label of banana republic.
7
I don't understand this. How can this happen without the president's knowledge? Who would be honoring the agreements and keeping it secret?
3
Does anyone think that a donor gives simply from the goodness of his heart? Either they want their name prominently displayed for eternity or they want the institution to further their ideals/ideas. Most of the time the latter works. It seems in this they are buying content. Line crossed.
2
The Koch Brothers must want to endow a chair in Loyalty Oath Studies.
1
From Koch Industries site. Code of conduct for employees:
"Ethical dealings with the government or a state-owned enterprise, requires following guidelines, especially when providing anything of value to a government official. Additional government interaction information, including the definition of “government” is located in the section of this Code on Government Interaction. Do not authorize, offer, provide, or deliver anything of value, either directly or indirectly, for the purpose of rewarding or improperly influencing any political official or government official, or their contractor or agent."
If Kochtopus followed their own employee code of conduct there would be a lot of less wealthy politicians. And the Kochs would probably be safely in jail.
5
Any university who would grant that kind of influence to a donor is no longer a university.
7
So the agreements "did not give donors *full control* over academic decisions." What a relief! At least GMU didn't outsource *all* decision making to corporate plutocrats. That shows integrity. I'm sure everything is just fine. Nothing to see here. The system works. Move on...
1
If Cabrera is really serious about removing the influence of large donors over the eduction students receive at GMU, the first ste would be to change the name of the law school back to what it was before the Koch brothers gift. A gift with strings attached isn't a gift; it's a bribe.
7
What's really surprising is how small the donations are compared to the influence they buy. Alumni need to publicly refuse to donate when these manipulations happen - as I did, when I found out a school I had donated to was taking Koch money. If alumni pull out, the "big" money won't make up the difference.
12
If our tax structure and system of higher education made any sense our "public" universities wouldn't be so beholden to such "gifts" from their major donors. Campaign finance reform will lead to tax reform, which will lead to public sector finance reform and we can get back to real education, but we must fix the politics first.
13
If related income tax deductions were taken in connection with these 'contributions' by the Koch brothers or their related entities, the IRS would do well to question whether there was present the requisite donative intent to support such deductions, or if in fact there were negotiated quid pro quos re faculty vetting, which would appear to vitiate the charitable characteristic of their dealings with the University.
27
Great point!
3
Perhaps the agreements themselves have expired, but were the content of those agreements enforced, and do they remain in force today? That is problematic. What were the terms under which the donations were made? We need to know what changed re the curriculum, books, professors, and what they teach or don't teach that was different before the agreements were made.
8
The Kochs are all about installing people and messaging centers that will spread their beliefs rather than act as beholden-free individuals or groups who think for themselves. They've already created a media propaganda machine, and they heavily influence primaries such that we end up with extremist choices for our representatives in governments, local, state, and federal. I think that they have been/are involved in funding research studies that come up with findings slanted toward their views on global warming.
Now, or maybe this has been going on for awhile, they are going after the universities, potentially the most dangerous institutions from the Koch's viewpoint because a good university trains people to think on their own and to use reason and evidence to form opinions. We certainly can't have that in Koch land.
19
The Kochs have finally reached the pinnacle. They have completely captured the Republican Party, now the entire government. Personal handmaidens to the brothers control the State Dept., the EPA, the CFPB and the vice president. Their money helped punch a thousand holes in Obamacare. Their state influence via SPN's and ALEC have devastated GOP states. I live in a relatively rural area and even our legislators signed pledges to the Kochs! These men have salted the earth for future generations. I'm sure they would like to educate them to accept their fate, surfs to the almighty dollar.
35
Be better than this. You do the hiring and firing!
2
Well heck, the Kochs get to choose our President and members of Congress, and can buy themselves tax breaks at will, so what's the big deal if they 'pay to play' for a few faculty positions?
Democratic institutions are being destroyed by the cancer of big ticket influence peddling - like $500 million in projected spending on midterm elections by Koch and a few of their good buddies on the right. And here we are fretting over a hangnail.
23
The Koch brothers were part of the republican resistance to Trump. So no they did not choose the president. Hatred causes blindness.
2
So it was not a gift but a payment for service which means the Koch Foundation violated the law and should loose their tax status - or will that be seen as "picking on conservatives" again.
20
Uh, looking at the record of various activities the Kochs have founded and funded, it does not demonstrate that they are such great minds or great political agendists. The Tea Party comes to mind, as do various other Koch inspired agendas from the John Birch Society on one hand to funding stuff on PBS on another. How well have any of them really and truly worked out for them or, for that matter, the general population of this country? They should be exposed by some group such as PBS's Frontline for just what they are, rather than letting them control the narrative by their own form of disinformation.
11
Do you not recall that a PBS documentary was pulled as it was critical of the Kochs. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/05/27/a-word-from-our-sponsor
2
I stopped donating to PBS when the local Boston station took David Koch on to their board. He made sure a documentary unfavorable to them never was aired. Once PBS did that, I said goodbye after donating for decades. Yes, folks, every institution can and has been bought.
1
My husband's late brother's widow has worked for Koch for years. She defends the Koch brothers as wonderful employers when I ask her about the Koch influence. Next time I'll say something like "Hitler loved his dogs" and that will pretty much be the end of our communication.
17
Stanford was offered a large gift by the Koch brothers a few yrs ago and simply turned it down.
36
No surprise.
“George Mason, a public university in Fairfax County, Va., has been one of the largest recipients of Koch donations.
According to an analysis of tax records by The Associated Press, the Koch Foundation gave $48 million to George Mason from 2011 to 2014.”
Just confirms my suspicions. Most times that I have seen faculty from George Mason on programs on C-Span and other political commentary shows, it seemed obvious that the views presented hued closely to current Koch/Libertarian positions. So much so that they sounded like info-mercials.
GUESS WHAT - that’s what they were. Nothing wrong with that IF their patrons were disclosed beforehand.
To be fair this principle should apply to whomever is speaking, be they left, right,or middle. It’s always good to know who paid for this ‘free speech’.
12
For all of the residual fears of socialist totalitarianism, the boot stepping on the face of humanity is presently adorned with dollar signs.
18
This is what the Koch's do. You take their money because they are paying for something. They are not real philanthropists. Don't pretend to be surprised when you find money left on the dresser in the morning.
22
So they bought he Republican Party. Then they bought some universities.
10
Jane Mayer's "Dark Money" (2016) is a must-read on the subject of big money, especially Koch money, and its use in influencing academic institutions in support of a conservative agenda. George Mason University has been one of the most eager recipients of these lavish bestowals. It is good news to hear that the university's president is attempting to expose and hopefully eradicate this decidedly anti-academic practice.
19
Agreed. Mayer's "Dark Money" is an eye-opener. She pulls the curtain back on the Kochs and Georage Mason University which has become one of their conquests.
As it seems we are at the mercy of evil billionaires from all sides, the only thing in society's favor is that Charles is 82 and David is 77 and the next generation usually dithers and dilutes the money and power. So the Koch scourge will soon be on the way out.
4
I'm sure their "contributions" continue, maybe not so transparently. The Citizens are NOT United behind the Kochs.
4
Aspiring comprehensive regional university to R1 status? Check
No endowment. Check.
Conservative axes in need of grinding. Check.
????
George Mason University. Check.
6
I have two responses to the assertion that the Koch Foundation does not "'seek to influence the hiring practices or university departments nor have input on curricular or research decisions.'"
The first is: anyone want to buy a bridge connecting Manhattan and Brooklyn? The second is: hahahahaha.
Speaking as an academic myself, whose institution recent accepted a large Koch grant, even if there are no explicit strings in the grant, there are plenty of implicit ones. As in: do you want more money from us in the future? If you do, fall in with our agenda now.
41
By insisting that they have a say in who is hired or fired, the Koch Brothers have bought the university. This has been written about for years! Gifts to universities and colleges are to come with no strings attached. These are not gifts, they are "bribes." Where was the IRS? Is the IRS investigating this? I may be wrong, but GMU is not the only institute of higher learning that has benefitted from the Koch Brothers largesse - all of it coming with "conditions." These are not gifts, they are tools of indoctrination.
12
If the IRS tried to get involved, the GOP would excoriate them and cut their funding further. We HAVE to get rid of the GOP's hold on Congress and remove their establishment Democratic counterparts at the same time. The same agenda, only the DNC puts whipped cream and a cherry on top of theirs.
1
American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA) has the same scary agenda as the Koch Brothers’ foundations.
2
Control of universities is a top priority among right wing billionaires. In Colorado, a woman who advocates "affirmative action" for conservatives on the faculty was elected to the CU Board of Regents by slightly more than 50% of the vote. In other words, she wants to screen the ideological beliefs of applicants and assure a suitable portion of conservatives. Incredible!
8
America desperately needs a 95% federal excess income tax levied on earnings, regardless of the sources, for that amount beyond $500 million per annum. This dangerous, accelerating growth in the pervasive power of concentrated oligarchic power in America must be stopped. We are clearly tipping towards a fascist future for the country, when combined with the current authoritarian-favored Administration. The Democratic Party should make such tax policy a central component of its platform in the upcoming elections.
11
How about we drop a zero. $50M - surely they can still buy islands and influence on that meager amount.
1
My son applied and got in. Then had the sense to turn them down.
Trivia question: If they had a law school, what would they name it?
(Trick question. They have a law school, and it is named the Antonin Scalia College of Law)
3
I am sick of these oligarchs. They stand in opposition to freedom and democracy even though they love to throw those words around. They cram their money into any undefended orifice to choke out any aspect of reality that doesn't comport to their selfish, sadistic, greed-soaked, twisted view of the world.
It's never enough for them. Never enough for they and their ilk. Well, we've had enough. We need to get money out of our politics- every vestige of it- once and for all. Then we need to tax these creeps to high heaven and finally re-invest in our nation and our people again, instead of investing in the dead end of the 1%.
8
Is this news? The rich pay for buildings, access or influence not only at Universities but all over the world. What do you think the Gates have been doing? Come on.
3
No, you come on! Bill Gates does not dictate who shall be hired and who shall be fired. No. He. Does. Not.
These two nasty old fools are the last remaining heirs to the John Birch Society and as one old wag said, they were "turned" by the time they were 12.
This isn't bricks and mortar, this is hearts and minds. Come on!
2
Or you can give a big donation and get a mediocre son into a place like Harvard (Jared Kushner).
7
The Koch family fortune was made in Stalin's Soviet Russia and Hitler's Nazi Germany. This family would do anything for money, including building the infrastructure of totalitarian tyranny. God forbid their money-grubbing amorality and "tax-cuts-in-a-time-of-war" version of patriotism should be surreptitiously propagated in an institution of higher learning.
7
Really now, has the NYT and GMU been asleep at the wheel since the 21st century began?
Without even going into everything else run by the Kochs, the Kochs and their plethora of brethren have been successfully running the college and university academia show across the US for years!!!
Anytime one sees a statement from GMU and other institutions and professors who have received their grants, one should not assume it is fair and unbiased.
10
Yes. US university administrators and faculty are almost all right wing nut jobs. Everyone already knows this.
GMU has been bought and controlled by right sided agendas for years. The Administration made a choice years ago to cater to those on the right with deep pockets.
19
The next question is were those people hired and what influence did they have on what followed. If the brothers got enough people in place it might be enough to get what they want(ed). So in some sense it is meaningless if they don't this stuff anymore. Highly unlikely as that may be.
2
No, it's not highly unlikely. GMU is not a well endowed school. I wouldn't be surprised if the Koch Brothers weren't the major benefactors of the university. Under no circumstance should they have a seat at the table. Their presence controls the mission of the school. The comment that they "recommend" candidates but don't vote is cold comfort. Having the money man sit at the table and ever so gently "suggest" a candidate smacks of an order, not a suggestion.
6
How is it these Kochs feel so entitled to be kingmakers? The section on financial advising for plutocrats in Michael Moore's "Capitalism, A Love Story" offers some compelling insights.
13
there's far too much wiggle room in the term "undue influence"....it needs to be defined. University admins can always find ways of fudging the issue as long as this term is undefined....
7
So may we assume that Brooks, Stephens et al will now be writing columns about this latest bunch of "campus crazies"? Or is this all the "intolerant" millenials' fault somehow, too?
11
The Koch Brothers and their form of Libertarianism are one of the biggest threats to our American Democracy. Their support of Tea-Party candidates in Washington and State Capitals is at least beginning to be fought in the Teacher Strikes now happening across the country. The defunding of our public education system and the manipulations of what's left, within Charter Schools and Universities, are part of their grand scheme to keep America dumb and misinformed. It's not a surprise that Trump and the Koch's Candidates find their biggest support in Americans with a high school degree or less. Which shows that unfortunately, their plan is working. Hopefully that base will realize that they are being hurt the most by these Koch policies and will continue to fight against them. If not, all of America will suffer if the Koch Brothers and their agenda are not stopped.
32
Please, NYT, try to get an extensive interview with any of the Koch brothers where they explain what they want. If something smells funny, one can be almost certain that they have their fingers in it. It is disturbing that two individuals, not elected, have so much power that they use to destroy everything that is good.
9
Seems like the Waltons, the Kochs, Eli Broad and others simply want to dismantle anything that serves the public good. Mercers,too. They believe only in the power of their own money. They hate the idea of paved roads, public schools, and a civilized society.
9
Yes, and it would be very interesting to hear them explain why. We need to understand those forces before we can deal with them.
Read Duke historian Nancy McLean’s book, “Democracy in Chains,” for a well-documented view of the Koch’s and others’ plans to legitimize plutocracy.
16
I'm pretty sure if it was George Soros who made donations under the same terms, this article would not have seen light of day.
7
But he didn't. Only these right wing crackpots did, and have ruined a university that had promise, but has been ruined by the overwhelming conservative bent of a number of its departments.
3
Not so fast kwb. The Koch brothers support of politicians who reduce public support of state universities is a big reason these schools they have to go around begging for money. The hypocrisy of their "generosity" is way over the line, and doubly duplicitous when one considers that they are underwriting economics professors who espouse "free market economics" in their classrooms.
2
George Soros? Is this the fall back "what about" position that is going to be used here too? This giving charade had been going on for over 10 years. Your comments say tons about your discernment and your attempt to slam the paper as weak, as weak as, the "what about" defense.
7
Read Jane Mayer's book "Dark Money." The Koch relationship with George Mason is clearly discussed.
19
Every professor that was suggested by the Kochs and subsequently hired must be removed from their position and allowed to re-apply along with other qualified applicants.
15
You know, the Koch vultures don't even use their own billions to build their own college to promote their economic and political ideas. Instead they have swooped in on taxpayer-built and -funded public university and tried to buy control of it on the cheap through strategic donations, while the people of Virginia continue to pay for upkeep, staff salaries, capital improvements, all the departments that the Kochs aren't interested in but that make GMU a university, and so forth and so on.
It's the use of leverage to buy the name and prestige of a public educational institution -- disgusting that Virginia allowed it to happen.
29
& we in VA can also thank the Koch Bros for helping elect politicians who cut higher ed budgets.
7
This stands as confirmation and not necessarily revelation. George Mason has had a "university for sale" sign in the window for many years now. The university president feigning surprise at the discovery of agreements of this nature is beyond laughable. Regarding credibility, this is entering Baghdad Bob territory.
43
Actually, I don't see why this is a problem. I mean, the Koch Bros. already own state legislatures, governorships, Congress and even the Veep. Academia, whatever that means at George Mason, should be delighted.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/10/23/the-danger-of-president-pence
4
This doesn't surprise me. GMU has always been a septic tank for right wing propaganda. They throw a little perfume in and call it academic debate.
It's Liberty University without Jesus.
39
The Kochs are a threat to our democracy and our freedoms! Thankfully they are old men and won't be around much longer! They've done enough damage!
1
I must admit great surprise that any person in the U.S. would be surprised that Big Money has "big influence".......have they looked in the undrained swamp lately?
2
Great article. The current tax bill creates a wider opportunity for such philanthropy to have an even greater impact, particularly on universities and even on NPR. What the Koch brothers began in the '70s with some 19 billionaires is now up to 1600 billionaires. As Cambridge Analytics showed, our ability to outvote them is suspect unless we limit the scope of tax evading social commentary and their ability to evade taxes.
6
The Koch brothers' combined net worth is now 120 billion (not a typo):
www.forbes.com/profile/charles-koch/
www.forbes.com/profile/david-koch/
What could anyone possibly do with such incomprehensible sums - equivalent to a medium-size city? Answer: mold a country in your image. See Dark Money by Jane Mayer for many more examples. This is the inevitable result of the continuing tax cuts that started with Reagan and concluded with this year's tax "reform." Elections have huge consequences; vote Nov. 2018!
129
Those Koch brothers must be stupid to make that much money. Who is paying them? No doubt Russian agents.
1
Tax cuts paired with decimation of pensions and public institutions.
7
Informative as well: Nancy MacLean, Democracy in Chains. The Deep History of the Radical Right's Stealth Plan for America, Viking, 2017
4
Koch money is made of the strings attached to it. Running George Mason U is small potatoes. Running Donald Trump is the real production.
64
Where is the mainstream political opposition to creeping fascism? Come on Democrats --are you just bought and paid for too? All you have to mouth is "universal health care " and Republicans cry "socialism ". When's the last time anybody heard one Democrat warn us about "fascism? No wonder half the country thinks it's a waste of time to vote
16
Considering Jesse Jackson received a lot of votes from Democrats while running for President, I would be careful about throwing out the fascist line.
1
read Dark Money this is not a revelation..
13
What about the David H. Koch Foundation's very controversial endowments for PBS/Nova science programming?
18
If it is not Koch Brothers straight away, it is another closely aligned right wing conservative or libertarian billionare donor who has the same Koch brother philosophy. They the Busch family donated $6 M at Catholic University ( CUA was Kennedy liberal democrats when I attended). Then the same thing at Purdue a similar family has made a big donation. What do you expect when you have former R Govenor Mitch Daniel as President of the University. Since when is the qualification for a top Engineering School to be a former Republican Governor. Was Mike Pence headed to IU when he would have lost his second term as Govenor. He couldn’t do a needle exchange or a road project!
18
Purdue is thriving under Mitch Daniels’ leadership. Obviously, you are not familiar with Purdue. Tuition has not risen in 7 years. Keep the partisanship out of education.
I'm shocked, SHOCKED, that Koch's are meddling in the law and economics departments that they originally set up as "think-tanks" aka propaganda shops. It's been widely known in the academy since at least the 80's what George Mason is all about.
26
Come on...everyone knows the Koch Bros infuses certain universities with tons of money if those universities will espouse their beliefs. Look at Florida; the Koch Bros owns that state and its universities (as well as Sen. Rubio).
15
The Fanjul family owns most of little Marco. The Kochs just have a small piece but he is totally owned.
Has Mr. Cabrera just arrived on this planet?
See Dark Money by Jane Mayer. And check out the Board of the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. You'll find Charles Koch. The Mercatus Center is a leading "think tank" for environmental deregulation. Koch heads Koch industries (oil, energy, coal, paper, chemicals, etc..). Sure its just a coincidence.
31
Samantha Parsons, thank you for your important and courageous work!
15
What has happened to our country? All of our institutions are falling apart. This is the saddest time for our citizens.
10
The Koch family's drive to shift from a democracy to a plutocracy, of which they are anointed the leaders, on full display here. Thank Mr. Cabrera for having the strength of character to call them and their onerous peers out for this disgraceful behavior.
6
The Koch brothers like to fly under the radar and will be very displeased by this article. I won’t be surprised if it quickly disappears. Read Dark Money by Jane Mayer.
4
I am glad I am leaving teaching at the end of the year after 30 years helping to train future health care workers. NO ONE can buy me out. However, massive corruption appears to be the future of American higher education.
7
These two men have a specific view of how all of us should live.
They have all the answers to all of life's challenges.
If only we would follow their example, we'd be living the good life.
That's their dogma.
And they are relentless in their pursuit of that belief system.
To expand their world, they personally (not their assistants) need to for one solid year:
1. Serve in a soup kitchen once a week.
2. Tutor in an inner city school once a week.
3. Visit a women's shelter daily.
4. Pick up a hammer for Habitat.
5. Read to Headstart kids once a week.
Then their dogma would change. Or not.
4
In a free market system everything is on sale. This report is
about the university. A report in today's paper on opioid
shows doctors were paid or bribed indirectly to recommend
the pain killer spawning epidemic. Doctors are on sale
and so are the politicians. Love the free market system.
6
To all the posters who feign outrage here because the name "Koch" is in the headline, you obviously never worked in Higher Ed. Guess what? Sometime rich people want more than their name on a building facade for $50M. Grow up.
2
George Mason ranks 140 on the US News national school- 2nd tier is the kindest thing you can say and now we know they are bought and paid for.
I wouldn’t hire from them any more than Liberty University or University of Phoenix
A university survives on its reputation
If you sell out - you will not attract the best people -
16
The only people to whom this is news are the George Mason administration. The documents showing the Koch Brothers' fingers into George Mason hiring have been available for years. George Mason has sought out every possible penny that the Kochs were willing to hand over and obeyed every instruction for the receipt of those monies that the Kochs and their minions have dictated. George Mason hasn't been an independent academic entity for years - it might as well be called Koch University. That might be entirely too honest however.
15
Among the reasons that I stopped listening to one local public radio station was their repeated use of one of the boyght and paid for talking heads from the Mercatus "think tank" at George Mason. He was a handsomely paid puppet fot the Koch brothers.
2
George Mason has branded itself as a conservative think tank (I use the term 'think' broadly here). Scalia Law School? No surprise here. The fact of the matter is that almost all universities are in the pocket of big money, some of it political, some military-indsutial complex, etc. Hiring faculty at many of most places is a matter of judging their prospective networking. All a sham.
4
I am right now reading the final chapter of Jane Mayer's DARK MONEY. I knew that it was bad, but it is worse than you can imagine. What has happened makes me vomit.
14
This should definitely damage the reputation of this university. Parents of prospective students should look elsewhere, if they want to encourage critical thinking, and intellectual independence, in their adult children. It's the last good turn they can do for their kids.
7
The Koch brothers' malign influence on this country, purchased with "dark money", has been vast, but it remains unknown to most Americans. It created the conditions that made it possible for Donald Trump to be President. It has weakened organized labor and environmental protections. It has prevented the U.S. from effectively responding to climate change. It is not at all surprising that the Koch's would like to use George Mason and other schools to preach their gospel of unfettered oligarchy.
16
They hired most of the Trump administration. They finance most of the GOP congress. Of course they're going after universities. And don't kid yourselves - both of these monsters could drop dead tomorrow and the staggering apparatus they've built will continue on well into the future. There are plenty of Koch disciples ready, willing and able to build their oligarchy.
7
Right-wing "dark money" from the Kochs and a handful of other ultra-right billionaire families has thoroughly infected the body politic in this country. Unlimited campaign contributions (made possible by Citizens United) ensure that far-right federal and state legislators are elected, and attack ads ensure that opposing views are squelched. ALEC, the so-called "American Legislative Exchange Council," is ubiquitous in state legislatures and ensures that ultra-right views are enacted into law. Think tanks funded by the same families pump out right-wing propaganda disguised as research. Astroturf organizations with mysterious funding sources (guess who) agitate against unions and even public works projects. Far-right media owned by the same billionaires pump out 24/7 propaganda. It's not at all surprising that the Koch tentacles have also spread into academia.
A handful of ultra-rich, ultra-right billionaire families have poisoned our politics with their money and propaganda.
9
What do you call philanthropic giving with strings attached?
(Hint: Misanthropic giving)
2
Will the Kochs also have a hand in selecting the investigator?
3
And the Right repeatedly howls about collegiate academic intolerance and indoctrination by the Left.
Stealth tactics, the use of established donation procedures, and of course making the administration beholden through money make this just as egregious as anything put forth in a lecture hall. But of course the Right won’t see the double standard— it never does because, well, they’re always “right”.
3
"“To be clear, we champion academic freedom and do not seek to influence the hiring practices of university departments nor have input on curricular or research decisions,” the letter said." Baloney!
4
When you have unlimited funds and time on your hands why not dedicate your life and money to change the country you live in? They are smart enough to know that you have to infiltrate every American institution with people who share your perspective. Our identity as a nation is strong and we still think we believe in government by the people and for the people so it's going to take a lot of time and dollars but the Koch brothers and their ilk are completely committed.
Our Democracy is under attack by fellow Americans. It takes people like Ms. Parsons to expose their slimeyness. We all need to be more vigilant and recognize this is not politics as usual.
7
As an academic, I heard about Koch money going to George Mason University years ago. Frankly, without know much detail at all, the fact of that financial relationship was enough to lower the university's standing in my eyes and in those of other academics I knew. The Kochs are anti-empiricism where it doesn't suit their business interests. These revelations--if they are indeed revelations to internal stakeholders--simply cannot come as a surprise.
8
Precisely the reason I no longer give any money to GMU, and mention only the years of my education spent elsewhere.
1
The Koch brothers think they "own" OUR United States of America. Over my dead body.
There was an interesting article in Bloomberg news today about their spending $2 MILLION dollars to send operatives door-to-door to try to sell their tax cuts to the public. It's worth a read and be sure to click on the link about 360 voter data that enables them to target voters. Scary.
This is clear evidence that no American who cares about preserving democracy should vote for any repbublican, independent, democrat or other candidate that is connected in any way to the Koch brothers. Their tentacles, paid for with OUR hard-earned taxpayer-funded government contracts, grants, tax breaks and consumer dollars, are long and invasive. They are traitors.
Here is the link to the article mentioned above:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-05-02/koch-backed-groups-ar...
8
This is not new, it's good light is being shed on it. See Jane Mayer's Dark Money and some recent updates in The New Yorker. The Kochs have been buying their way into higher level universities to lend "legitimacy" to their predatory "philosophy" of greed and extreme profiteering. Getting rid of worker safety, poisoning the environment, a long and dirty history. This from 2010, & try searching "Jane Mayer George Mason"
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2010/08/30/covert-operations
"In the mid-80s, the Kochs [funded] ... George Mason University ... think tank. Now known as the Mercatus Center, it promotes itself as “the world’s premier university source for market-oriented ideas—bridging the gap between academic ideas and real-world problems.” Financial records show that the Koch family foundations have contributed more than $30 million to George Mason, much of which has gone to the Mercatus Center, a nonprofit organization. “It’s ground zero for deregulation policy in Washington ... George Mason is a public university, and receives public funds ....“Virginia is hosting an institution that the Kochs practically control.”
"The founder of the Mercatus Center is Richard Fink, formerly an economist. Fink heads Koch Industries’ lobbying operation in Washington. In addition, he is the president of the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation, the Claude R. Lambe Charitable Foundation ... and a director and co-founder, with David Koch, of the Americans for Prosperity Foundation."
50
This is why I donate to the university where I graduated. It helped me through with grants, etc. and I want to extend the same help to others - without any "strings" attached.
27
The even stranger thing is that this about the Kochs' technique has been known for years. I remember reading about it several years ago, when they gave money for the promotion of their political agenda to a university in Florida (Florida State, according to a previous commenter) and also I'm fairly sure I read about it at George Mason. Did the president of GMU really not know about this before it became a public scandal a few days ago?
66
This kind of thing happens in academia all the time. Entire departments and centers are opened/closed based on the whims of wealthy donors. Endowed professorships are reserved for candidates who meet the obscure interests and desired demographics picked by the donors. And academic research is routinely vetted by the private foundations funding it. The only difference here is that the donors are funding politically conservative projects. I'm no fan of the Kochs, but let's be clear: this is not a Koch problem, or a George Mason University problem...this is a problem across academia.
32
Yes, "this is a problem across academia." If pill makers do not sponsor research in public and private universities would researchers be paid? The same question must be asked of funding that pays for research into oil extraction, artificial intelligence, navigation systems, other warfare components and processes and so on, and on and on. Only a few dollars will fund humanities. The engineers and bio-medical people, however, are cheerfully accepting many thousands of dollars to provide self-driving cars.
5
I would enjoy seeing the statistics on the political orientation of wealthy donors, and the analysis of how much overt influence they apply to academic institutions.
7
These people are using their financial might to try to make the US in their image.
They don't give out money without a purpose. From the guy who wanted his name splashed all over the university to those who are trying to promote their ideas or culture, the payback is always there.
Rare is the individual who donates without strings.
67
George Mason Univ., known for its free-market economics. NIce to know where the money to do this comes from.
66
And lobbyists don't expect anything in return for the money they contribute to politicians' re-election campaigns. Yeah, right. Read DARK MONEY by Jane Mayer. It's all in there.
71
First they buy the GOP now they are buying universities. What is next Churches?
78
They've bought a lot of art museums.
3
Alas, they don’t have to buy the churches, at least the evangelical ones. My father used to tell an old joke about an unsuccessful farmer who had to move so much that, when he came out to feed the chickens, they just flopped over on their backs to be tied up for the ride. The evangelicals have been flopped over for some time now, with no sign that they regret being tied up.
5
Well that has already been done check out Billy Graham and Sid Richardson.
7
At last! Thank you, for this! The idea that the Koch brothers encourage academic freedom is risible in the light of their long history with James McGee Buchanan and their funding of the Cato Institute, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), the Club for Growth and many other partisan action groups. Buchanan was an implacable opponent of integration of public schools, and on that opposition built his first program at UVa, later transferring with it to the newly upgraded George Mason at a site nearer to DC. Nancy MacLean details a commitment to stealth by the Koch brothers in furthering their extreme anti-government agenda. Their programs at GMU were designed to advance that agenda, not to promote pure, original research. The Wall St. Journal referred to GMU as the “pentagon of conservative academia.” GMU isn’t alone in being influenced by Koch money. In 2016, FSU announced "Three programs at Florida State University have been awarded more than $800,000 in grants from the Charles Koch Foundation.” FSU’s description of what the grants “are expected to advance" fitted exactly with the Koch anti-government, anti-tax, anti-regulation agenda. I’m sure Mr. Cabrera of GMU knows the decades-long relationship of Koch to GMU. I wish him luck in dealing with a selected and entrenched faculty and board.
100
GMU sold its soul long ago when it succumbed to James Buchanan's influence.
5
I can assume you have the same issue with Soros?
1
Never assume. Chalk and cheese and whataboutism. Can you show that Soros has ever dictated what faculty should be hired, and what political aims they should pursued? Don't believe Orban or Hannity.
4
If you have read Jane Mayer's "Dark Money," this article would not have surprised you. Mayer describes in detail what she dubbed the Koch Octopus spreading its political agenda into virtually ever nook and cranny of our political and educational worlds.
The article doesn't get into how the Koch boys' inundation of money to George Mason has been used, but here's a tip: Mayer's work uncovered many instances when purported academic research papers were churned out from GMU that were, instead, brilliant pieces of libertarian, right wing propaganda. This pseudo-research is now floating around academia like ocean mussels that are clogging freshwater lakes, like Erie and Michigan.
Mayer's book ought to be required reading in high school. It lays bare the secret world of influence peddling funded by people who do not have the interests of the general population at heart.
282
Reading and gaining information does no good unless people take action to preserve the one thing they care most about, Paul B67. NOW is the time. It may be the only time.
1
Absolutely. My 1st thought when I read the title of the piece. Go read "Dark Money." The information was right there a couple of years ago.
5
I completely agree that Dark Money should be required in high school social studies classes. There are several articles (New Yorker) in which Meyer summarizes what she discovered in her research.
10
This may not be a polite thing to say but ... when the time comes that these two are no longer amongst us, the sun will shine brighter, the sky will be bluer, the air will smell sweeter.
These two men are absolutely the most rapacious and relentless purveyors of evil that I've been aware of in my lifetime. Their insidious efforts to undermine and destroy both our democracy and our planet have been non-stop for forty plus yrs.
One need only to look at the current occupant of the White House, his cabinet, this congress and SCOTUS to see how successful they've been. We must pull the plug on what can be described as a coup in November - it may be our last chance.
273
No apology necessary. They are the worst and are doing what they can to actualize their demented vision before they kick the bucket. Good riddance can't come soon enough.
11
I am not feeling too optimistic, after reading comments about our electronic voting equipment to other articles, even though I myself vote by paper ballot. The midterms are too important for the international mafia's preferred party of choice to lose in their conquest towards world kleptocracy.
6
Because when John Rockefeller died, Standard Oil all of the sudden became a friend of the working class and environment?
2
I am certain the Koch Brothers wrote these gifts off their income taxes, thus, the gift is actually paid for by the US tax payer, we the people, in Koch tax writeoffs. Hence, the Koch's should have no influence over the hiring of faculty.
210
You are right! I’m tired of thanking people for their charitable deductions since it’s really the taxpayers money. Boo to any of you that contribute to churches, hospitals and schools. Awful people. And by the way, quit hiring so many non liberal professors. Soon the faculty may only be 90% liberal.
2
Plato was right. The just republic where reason rules degenerates into a timocracy and then into an oligarchy, in which desire rules. This is a fine example. Our universities are becoming corrupted by money just as our government, health care (e.g. nursing homes), corrections systems, and sports are corrupted. Marx echoed Plato's sentiment with his contention that money becomes the mind of everything.
Final stage of degeneration will be tyranny, where the tyrant steps forward as the savior of the people. I hope Plato's prescience stops before we reach it.
100
We have a would-be tyrant squatting in the White House presently.
6
And here I thought, based on the words of some of the Times' own opinion writers, the biggest danger to free speech on campuses was those loud mouth students. Good thing we've continued to ignore the impact that money and the wealthy have in all segments of our society, especially universities. I'm sure George Mason isn't the only one.
109
“To be clear, we champion academic freedom and do not seek to influence the hiring practices of university departments nor have input on curricular or research decisions,”
Recommending candidates, after posting a big donation, is a classic way of 'seeking to influence' - you scratch my back because I just scratched yours.
84
Amen, Koch ,the Trump admin swamp rich people and all the horrors that the GOP are inflecting on this country. Parents should ensure that there children go to another college and teachers should walk with there feet. I know it is easy to say that because I am not tenured at this university. However in life you don't get do over's so don't waste your talents at an institution that cares nothing for democracy or the American people. Koch like Pence are poison to this country
29
Montana State University faculty recently voted to turn down a Koch funded research facility. So even in red Montana, Koch money is not appreciated.
221
Good for Montana, Iowa State could learn at thing or two from you!
6
Ok, that's fine, bravo. But would the same university accept a gift for a professorship in biomedical research that is funded by the Sackler family, the founders and billlionaire majority shareholders of Purdue Pharma, opiate suppliers/drug pushers to the world? Or a professorship in geology funded by a mining company? This is not just a Koch brothers problem, it's a universal problem in American higher education. The more we starve universities of public resources, the greater the temptation (or need) to accept tainted gifts from ideologues who would like nothing better than to realize the triumph of the illiberal state.
13
Score a big one for Montana!!!!
1
Particularly egregious when a public university is involved. Shame, shame, shame.
133
This is horrible. I fear we are heading toward a country where faculties are overwhelmingly liberal and give academic credit for political activism. And conservative speakers met with physical intimidation and violence. Oh, sorry. Wrote that 50 years ago.
That's the way it should be!
Academia's leadership has been complicit in its own destruction. This has been going on for years.
43
The effects of those "old" hires certainly persist. The right-wing blogger and Mercatus fellow Todd Zywicki, who was hired to teach at the law school, has professed his admiration for (fealty to?) the Kochs.
62
Shocked! Just shocked! To think someone could fund the building of an entire school and donate millions and then wield influence at our school. Read Dark Money by Jane Mayer.
61
Everyone needs to read "Dark Money". In it, Meyer lays out the Koch takeover of political, legal, and educational systems that cannot resist the corrupting power of capitalism.
53
Strings, you may this money comes with strings ?
8
And America moves one inch closer to fascism.
The Koch Brother influence is a dark one; education is the pursuit of opening one's mind, allowing knowledge and truth to become more important than greed-driven pursuits. The Koch's seek to influence all institutions of our democracy to destroy them from within.
145
Really. Facism. That’s the best you’ve got? The Times will allow anything.
“All but the earliest of these agreements explicitly stated that the final say in all faculty appointments lies in university procedures,”
Right. But by then, it's pretty clear what the wishes of the Big Money are, also that it would be wise to accommodate those wishes if you want any more donations.
155
Or we could just pass a law that prohibits any contributions to a university, how about that. Or maybe just cut off contributions from non liberals. Isn’t that the reason this story appears?
1
I think the point is that there's actually a difference between "donating" and purchasing a portion of the faculty.
7
I quit a synagogue I helped found over this issue. A new couple breezed into town, joined the temple and proceeded to write the biggest checks, gaining tacit control over the only two major hiring decisions: the rabbi and the education director. They got the rabbi then in place fired, and brought in a friend (unqualified) to be the Ed Director. What happens is that no committee will be so stupid as to invite candidates to be interviewed unless they are known to be approved by the Power Couple. I'm sure this is what happened with Koch money. It controlled the process from the get-go, thus leading inexorably to Koch-controlled outcomes.
8
There is no end to what money can buy. This is a disgrace, and testimony to where education is headed in these United States. No where good!
118