• Florida
university receives $1.5m from rightwing billionaires
• Kochs
wanted appointment of ultra-rightwing economics faculty
theguardian.com,
Ed Pilkington in New York, Friday 12 September 2014
 |
| David Koch, above, and his brother Charles donated to 163 colleges and univerisites in 2012. Photograph: Phelan M Ebenhack/AP |
The
billionaire Koch brothers attempted to wield political influence over
appointments and teaching at a major US university in exchange for donations,
newly published documents reveal.
Internal
emails and memos from the economics department of Florida State University
(FSU) open a window into the kind of direct pressure the Kochs seek to exert
over academic institutions in return for their largesse. The 16 pages of documents, obtained by the Center for Public Integrity, show that the energy tycoons demanded through their grant-giving arm, the Charles Koch Foundation, a
role in faculty appointments and an emphasis on teaching that was in tune with
their radical political views.
Charles and
David Koch are major funders of the Tea Party and other ultra-rightwing
movements that oppose government intervention and advocate for an unregulated
free market.
A memo drawn up by the then chair of the FSU economics department, Bruce Benson, set
out the Kochs’ terms for funding, noting that “the proposal is … not to just
give us money to hire anyone we want and fund any graduate student that we
choose. There are constraints.”
A section
of the memo headlined “Constrained hiring” says: “As we all know, there are no
free lunches. Everything comes with costs. In this case, the money for faculty
lines and graduate students is coming from a group of funding organisations
with strong libertarian views. These organisations have an explicit agenda.
“They want
to expose students to what they believe are vital concepts about the benefits
of the market and the dangers of government failure, and they want to support
and mentor students who share their views. Therefore, they are trying to
convince us to hire faculty who will provide exposure and mentoring. If we are
not willing to hire such faculty, they are not willing to fund us.”
The
documents date back to 2007, when the Koch deal was first being negotiated with
FSU. Among the other demands made by the foundation was that Benson, a
free-market libertarian who shares many of the Kochs’ beliefs, must have his
term as chair of the economics department extended for three years as a
requirement of the donation.
Dave
Levinthal, the centre’s senior political reporter, who broke the story , said:
“The documents give a blueprint of what the Kochs wanted and if ultimately they
didn’t get everything they demanded it still gives a rare view into their
intentions. They were saying ‘We want this, this and that, and if you don’t do
it, we are not going to give you any money’.”
The Koch’s
financial gift was finalised in 2009 at the sum of $1.5m (£920,000) to be
spread over six years – a drop in the ocean for the brothers who own the second
largest privately owned company in the US and are valued at $36bn each. The
university says that as of April this year it had received $1m.
Under the
initial deal with the Kochs, they had direct input into the appointment of
faculty members in the economics department through a three-person advisory
board set up specifically to liaise with the Charles Koch Foundation over
hiring. The terms of the donation have been a running sore within FSU,prompting considerable internal opposition.
In the face
of widespread criticism, the university authorities in 2013 revised the terms
of the Koch funding to weaken the brothers’ grip on appointments. A statement from the university released earlier this year said that “the decision was made
to eliminate any role whatsoever of the advisory group in the hiring of
tenure-track faculty members in the department of economics”.
Benson did
not immediately reply to questions from the Guardian. But he told the Center
for Public Integrity that the documents had been intended for internal use and
were written at “early stages of discussion” over the Koch grant, well before
it was finalised in 2008.
Florida
State University is not the only academic institution that the Kochs have
financial relationships with. According to the CPI, the brothers dispensed $13m
in 2012 to 163 colleges and universities.
 |
David Koch,
chairman of the Americans for Prosperity Foundation, funds some
of the
largest dark money networks. (AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack, File) | AP
|
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