Examining the Koch Scholars Program
Seventy-five applications sat in a pile on Professor William Shughart’s desk with 75 students all wanting to hear the same words: “Congratulations! We would like you to participate in Utah State University’s Koch Scholars Program.”
The Jon M. Huntsman School of Business website defines Koch Scholars Program as “a select group of intellectually curious faculty and students … who are interested in how politics and economics affect individual freedom and responsibility.”
Each semester, 15 students are admitted to the Koch Scholars Program, funded by the Charles G. Koch Foundation (CGK Foundation).
A businessman and philanthropist, Charles Koch, is chairman of the board and CEO of Koch Industries and co-owns the company with his brother, David Koch.
According to the Forbes list of “The World’s Most Powerful People,” the Koch brothers have built a $43.6 billion empire. Their product interest ranges from the Dixie cup to Stainmaster Carpet.
The Koch Brothers have made frequent appearances in the news lately with headlines like “Animal Rights Groups Claims Abuse by Koch Foods” from CBS Local, “The Koch Brothers Sneak into School” from Huffington Post and “The Koch Network Spent $100 Million This Election Cycle” from the National Journal.
When asked whether he considered their ethics to be in question, Professor Shughart declined to answer.
Another professor, however, did answer.
“I don’t even know who the Koch brothers are,” said Chris Fawson of the economics and finance department. “Do they have names?”
Fawson was a Koch Professor for four years and is an advocate for the program.
“I think it’s one of the best mentoring opportunities on campus for students from across campus. … I loved doing Koch Scholars,” he said.
With Charles G. Koch Professor of Political Economy Randy Simmons, Fawson played a critical role in introducing the Koch Scholars Program to USU.
“The program was founded by Randy Simmons and Chris Fawson,” said Shughart, who is now a Koch Professor. “We are not influenced one bit by the Koch Brothers. They finance this program because they like what we do. We’re not doing what they want us to do. They like what we do. They fund us, I don’t know, probably $80,000 or $100,000 a year. But all the money goes to books, to food and stipends.”
The foundation grant agreement with USU includes a provision that the Koch foundation be involved in reviewing candidates for tenure-tracked professor positions and requires that those hired with Koch funding follow certain objectives and principles, which are outlined in the agreement.
In this instance the CGK Foundation, an outside entity, has the ability to reject or approve the hiring of certain university staff.
Under in Section 2(c)(iii) of Terms of Agreement, it reads, “USU agrees to recruit and maintain the Professors in accordance with the Objectives and Purposes.”
“Many of our best students have participated in (Koch Scholars),” said Michael Lyons of the political science department. “Some have liked it. Some have walked away as critics. And, you know, I don’t think it’s in any sense harming our students.”
The Koch Brothers are characterized by their conservative orientation, Lyons said, and it strikes him as “highly unfortunate” to see its influence at a university in one of the most conservative states in the country, “where the last thing in the world we should be doing is reinforcing conservative ideology.”
“I don’t think ideology belongs in a university,” said Lyons. “The exploration of values does, but … the worst thing you can do is simply conform to the existing cultural environment of the state, to reinforce everything everybody thinks already. That accomplishes nothing in terms of teaching students critical thinking.”
It has been suggested that Koch Scholars impedes on the free exchange of ideas by promoting certain ideologies.
“I think that’s insanity,” Fawson said. “There’s no ideology that’s promoted, other than to think critically about a set of readings.”
Samples of readings for the scholars include “Wealth of Nations” by Adam Smith, “Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy” by Joseph Schumpter, “Ender’s Game” by Orson Scott Card and “The Hunger Games“ by Suzanne Collins.
“I did not feel manipulated into any schools of thought,” said Joslyn Olsen, a former Koch Scholar. “I will say, however, that my own beliefs about politics and government certainly evolved over the course of the semester. I believe that was a natural progression of new-found viewpoints and insights rather than any form of coercion.”
Many students in the political science and economics departments participate in the Koch Scholars Program.
“Political scientists have a responsibility to explore political ideologies, and economists have a responsibility to explore ideologies of economic systems,” Lyons said. “So it’s a legitimate field of inquiry, but the question is, do scholars make an attempt to present, in good faith, all the possible ideological or value perspectives on questions? Or is there a deliberate attempt to slant things? Discussions about ideology are completely appropriate and, I think, necessary. Advocacy of ideology doesn’t belong at a university.”
Lyons has never participated in the Koch Scholars Program and as such, does not necessarily believe the program advocates for certain ideology.
“It would be fascinating to see what the nature of our agreement with the Koch brothers is,” he said.
Of the allegations in the media against Charles Koch, Fawson said, “I think that humans are complex people that have a variety of virtues and vices. All of us have them, right? So can people write things critical of Charles Koch? Sure. He’s not perfect, right? The mere fact that they use the word ‘Koch brothers’ means nothing to me. That’s not a name. That’s not a person. That’s how you villainize people; you label them a certain way and attack the label that you’ve created.”
Fawson encourages students who are concerned about participating in Koch Scholars to broaden their perspective.
“Follow your own conscience,” said Fawson. “If you’re uncomfortable with what somebody does, don’t associate with them.”
— brennakelly818@gmail.com
Those evil Kochs… funding students’ scholarships and learning opportunities. Pure selfishness!
There’s nothing that screams evil to me quite like donating money to support student programs and provide scholarships…
Also, I had to chuckle a little bit when I read that the Koch’s ideology falls right in line with Utah’s. I’d love to see how the average Utah voter feels about the Koch’s stances on gay marriage and marijuana legalization. There is a dramatic difference in conservatism and libertarianism, even if Dr. Lyons’ ideology doesn’t want to admit it.
Greetings from a current Koch Scholar!
I am not a Libertarian. I am not even a Republican. What I am is passionate about the world that I live in and concerned by many of the things I see. I enjoy reading difficult texts and discussing serious issues with intelligent people in a civil and respectful environment. I am actively seeking both understanding and solutions to the problems we face as a society and species.
For those who are interested in the actual content of our weekly roundtable discussions, this semester we focused entirely on the discussion of novels. The reading list ranged from the biblical book of Job to Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale.” The discussions were lively, entertaining, and regularly profound. Numerous members of USU’s faculty interacted with students as peers and equals in a cooperative process of learning and discovery. It was not a process of indoctrination, as implied in this article, or an effort at ideological conversion as the clearly under-informed Dr. Lyons and the author seem to suppose. Not every question we discuss has a definitive right answer, and frequently the participants at this one-of-a-kind group agree to disagree, hardly in line with any process of political conversion that I’m aware of. I would suggest to Dr. Lyons and any other curious or concerned faculty that they contact either a Koch Scholar or one of the associated faculty and join us for dinner and discussion at a week of their choosing. What they and any student participants in the program will find is an educational experience that has the potential to be truly transformative, not only in terms of broadening your worldview, but in the powerful relationships with faculty, promising students, and alumni that you will develop. I have learned more and thought deeper during this semester’s Koch Scholars program than I have in any class I’ve taken at USU or any other school. I remain happily out of synch with the libertarian views of the Koch’s, but even so I am proud to be a Koch Scholar.
What a pity that Ms. Kelly wasn’t interested in learning or reporting about Koch Scholars as it really is. If she had been, she might have considered speaking to even a single one of us, the current participants, about our experiences and sat in on one of our discussions. I assure you the option would have been available to her had she asked and the experience would have made for a very different article than she published – one that may have actually been beneficial to the readers of the Statesman and the engaged students at Utah State University.