Students petition for transparency of Koch Foundation financial donations

By: Brayden O’Brien

On Thursday 15 students organized a protest against the lack of transparency in financial donations from the Charles Koch Foundation. Meeting at the John M. Huntsman Business Building at noon, they marched to the president’s office to hand-deliver a formal letter requesting all past, current and future records for arranged donations between 2008 to 2018.

The Charles Koch Foundation, a nonprofit charitable operation established by the billionaire Koch brothers, is known for its numerous donations to conservative and libertarian think tanks, as well as extensive promotion and advocacy of “free societies and well-being” by donating to more than 250 universities across the country, according to the foundation’s website.

The protest, organized by Utah State University students, is part of a nationwide movement known as “UnKoch My Campus,” where students at 50 colleges and universities have organized to increase the transparency of Koch donations on their campuses and around the country.

All records, including documents and emails related to the agreement between USU and the Koch foundation are requested by students, including sophomore Diego Mendiola because “students at Utah State deserve an education that hasn’t been bought, sold, or owed,” Mendiola said in the press release he wrote for the petition.

Freshman Anders Hart, who is majoring in conservation and restoration ecology, participated in the protest.

“It seems like the Kochs attempt to promote their political views on college campuses across the country by donating to programs like ours at USU,” he said.

Previously released Koch agreements with the university have included the establishment of an annual $45,000 Koch Scholars program where selected students read and discuss literature on freedom and responsibility, as well a $625,000 grant over five years to help hire new professors whom the foundation can help select.

Some are concerned that records may indicate that the Foundation’s relationship with USU is similar to the one at Florida State University. Last year, the Center for Public Integrity uncovered that in 2007, a proposed multi-million dollar Koch donation to the FSU economics department came with stipulations attached, including ethically questionable demands that the economics curriculum “must align with the libertarian, deregulatory economic philosophy of Charles Koch.”

The agreement with USU indicates that the school “agrees to recruit Professors who support the Objectives and Purposes” of the organization. When the records are released, they will clarify the exact nature of the relationship between the school and the Foundation.

“Utah State students should have a right to know if their professors are hired to support and advance ideologies of donors,” said protester Chris Tonan. “This is not a partisan issue as we are against undue influence of donors on our education whatever end of the political spectrum they fall under.”

However in a Statesman piece last year, Professor William Shughart, who is heavily involved with the Koch Scholars program, said, “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.”

In addition, USU spokesman Tim Vitale said in a statement today that “[USU] worked closely with the Koch Foundation to ensure that academic freedom is first and foremost in the contract. [Both parties] cared about that as we worked on the contract; we worked on it together. We expressed our concerns about academic freedom, and they made clear their belief in total academic freedom as well.”

USU is working to fulfill the request that Mendiola formally made on Monday, but they must give the Foundation 10 days’ notice before releasing details and records of the agreement.

The Government Records and Management Act, which helps create access to public records, allows for this 10-day delay.

“We’re not saying the Koch brothers can’t do this, what we’re asking for is just transparency,” Mediola said in a statement to the Associated Press.

The Koch brothers, well-known for pumping hundreds of millions of dollars into conservative and libertarian causes and candidates, have created a powerful political network with which they aim to promote pro-business, anti-regulation economic policy. A top aid reportedly told a group of Koch supporters last year that “[Koch] political success begins with reaching young minds in college lecture halls.” This may explain the millions of dollars in grants, which in many cases don’t come without strings attached.

A similar records request made by a student at the University of Kansas in 2013 led to the release of emails indicating that economics professor Art Hall was being paid by the Fred & Mary Koch Foundation for the specific purpose of producing research to attack clean energy incentives, which other Koch subsidiaries were actively lobbying against.

Professors at USU who have benefited from Koch money in some way, namely Dr. Randy Simmons and Dr. Ryan Yonk, have also published research and editorials critical of clean energy subsidies, though there is no evidence to suggest that they did so because of their relationship with the Koch Foundation.

— braydensobrien@gmail.com