<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rss version="2.0" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" xmlns:sy="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/syndication/" xmlns:slash="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/slash/" > <channel> <title>Koch donation Archives - The Utah Statesman</title> <atom:link href="https://usustatesman.com/tag/koch-donation/feed/" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" /> <link>https://usustatesman.com/tag/koch-donation/</link> <description>USU's Student Newspaper</description> <lastBuildDate>Thu, 09 May 2019 23:05:54 +0000</lastBuildDate> <language>en-US</language> <sy:updatePeriod> hourly </sy:updatePeriod> <sy:updateFrequency> 1 </sy:updateFrequency> <generator>https://wordpress.org/?v=6.7.2</generator> <image> <url>https://usustatesman.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/cropped-screen-shot-2017-10-19-at-4.33.29-pm-32x32.png</url> <title>Koch donation Archives - The Utah Statesman</title> <link>https://usustatesman.com/tag/koch-donation/</link> <width>32</width> <height>32</height> </image> <item> <title>The Charles Koch Foundation donated $25 million to USU, here’s how it’s impacted the university</title> <link>https://usustatesman.com/charles-koch-gave-25m-to-our-university-has-it-become-a-rightwing-mouthpiece/</link> <comments>https://usustatesman.com/charles-koch-gave-25m-to-our-university-has-it-become-a-rightwing-mouthpiece/#comments</comments> <dc:creator><![CDATA[Alison Berg and Carter Moore]]></dc:creator> <pubDate>Thu, 02 May 2019 17:04:18 +0000</pubDate> <category><![CDATA[All]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Campus News]]></category> <category><![CDATA[News]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Charles Koch Foundation]]></category> <category><![CDATA[education]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Florida State University]]></category> <category><![CDATA[George mason university]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Jon M. Huntsman School of Business]]></category> <category><![CDATA[koch]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Koch brothers]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Koch donation]]></category> <category><![CDATA[USU Business School]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Utah education]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">https://usustatesman.com/?p=22103160</guid> <description><![CDATA[<p>Editor’s note: this story was done as a collaborative project with The Guardian. For the past year, we have been…</p> <p>The post <a href="https://usustatesman.com/charles-koch-gave-25m-to-our-university-has-it-become-a-rightwing-mouthpiece/">The Charles Koch Foundation donated $25 million to USU, here’s how it’s impacted the university</a> appeared first on <a href="https://usustatesman.com">The Utah Statesman</a>.</p> ]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><em>Editor’s note: this story was done as a collaborative project with <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/may/02/charles-koch-gave-25m-to-our-university-has-it-become-a-rightwing-mouthpiece">The Guardian.</a></em></p> <p><i>For the past year, we have been investigating the Koch donations for our student newspaper, The Utah Statesman and The Guardian. We interviewed more than 20 of our fellow students and staff, and pulled dozens of public records<a href="https://usustatesman.com/?s=koch"> and wrote stories about it.</a> What we found paints a picture of how Charles Koch is using his wealth to affect the education of 3,500 students at the Huntsman School of Business.</i></p> <p>At first, Angel Lopez felt honored to have won the scholarship.</p> <p>In 2017, the marketing student at <a class="u-underline" href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/utah" data-link-name="auto-linked-tag" data-component="auto-linked-tag">Utah</a> State University’s business school was named a Koch Scholar, a program sponsored by Charles Koch, the ultra-conservative billionaire. Fifteen students are given a $1,000 stipend and selected to participate in the “reading group,” tasked with reading one book a week.</p> <p>But Lopez, 23, the son of Latino immigrants who aspired to become a social worker, soon felt the program was promoting a hardline brand of rightwing politics. His required readings, with titles such as Order Without Law and Anarchy Unbound, could often be boiled down to a single idea: Government is bad.</p> <p>Critics say the Koch Scholars program is one example of how Charles Koch has sought to transform the Utah State business school into a libertarian mouthpiece. Over the last 10 years Koch has given millions to the university, including a $25 million gift in 2017 that led to the creation of a think-tank:<a href="https://www.growthopportunity.org"> the Center for Growth and Opportunity at Utah State University.</a></p> <p>He is<strong> </strong>pursuing similar policies at schools nationwide, in what Koch officials themselves describe as a concerted effort to influence the next generation of political and business minds. “Our funding helps [scholars] follow their research wherever it may lead,” the foundation says in public materials. “We are committed to the highest standards of philanthropy.”</p> <div id="dfp-ad--inline1" class="js-ad-slot ad-slot ad-slot--inline ad-slot--inline1 ad-slot--rendered" data-link-name="ad slot inline1" data-name="inline1" aria-hidden="true" data-mobile="1,1|2,2|300,197|300,250|300,274|fluid" data-phablet="1,1|2,2|300,197|300,250|300,274|620,350|fluid" data-desktop="1,1|2,2|300,250|300,274|620,1|620,350|fluid" data-google-query-id="CNGQ2eOo_eECFU3WZAod6lQICQ"> <p>Many public universities depend heavily on private donations, and benefactors of all political stripes, such as Michael Bloomberg and George Soros, donate to universities across the country. But, for Charles Koch, universities are a relatively recent investment – and are part of a grander plan to shift America to the right.</p> <p>At a 2014 seminar titled Leveraging Science and the Universities, Brian Hooks, president of the Charles Koch foundation, told the audience: “Universities can have a major influence on the national conversation, but it doesn’t happen by accident. “Our job is to make sure that we’ve got a strategy for our work to have a disproportionate impact.”</p> <p>Koch has successfully built educational empires with donations to schools such as <a class="u-underline" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/05/us/koch-donors-george-mason.html" data-link-name="in body link">George Mason</a> University and <a class="u-underline" href="https://www.tallahassee.com/story/opinion/2015/02/23/kent-miller-koch-contract-raises-serious-issues-fsu/23889657/" data-link-name="in body link">Florida State</a> University. At George Mason, where the Koch foundation has donated $95.5 million, foundation members have sat on hiring committees tasked with finding professors and were able to suggest students for admission. At Florida State University, the Koch foundation donated $1.5 million in exchange for the university hiring two faculty members with Koch-approved agendas.</p> <p>But at USU, spokesman Tim Vitale said there are efforts to prevent undue influence over professors and student admissions. “That is not the case here. We made sure that those mechanisms and oversight controls are clear and in place.”</p> <h2>‘Academic freedom’</h2> <p>Utah State is idyllic in many ways: nestled in the Rocky Mountains north of Salt Lake City, the school is well known for its agriculture, education, and space research programs.</p> <p>The Koch effort here began in <a class="u-underline" href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1302331-utah-state-university-koch-grant-agreement.html" data-link-name="in body link">2008</a>, when the Charles Koch foundation agreed to provide USU with money for professors: $25,000 every year for one “Koch professor” and the same stipend for each of four “faculty junior professors.”</p> <p>Although the agreement mentioned “academic freedom” as a requirement for the donation, the agreement also required USU to involve the Koch foundation in reviewing candidates for the professorships.</p> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true"> <p lang="en" dir="ltr">Diego Mendiola and Yale Benson from the Democratic Socialists of America club were released after questioning. Mendiola says officers said his protest didn’t fit under free speech, but was a “disruption of a public event” <a href="https://t.co/YMSc3CXhnr">pic.twitter.com/YMSc3CXhnr</a></p> <p>— Utah Statesman <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/15.0.3/72x72/1f4f0.png" alt="📰" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" /> (@UtahStatesman) <a href="https://twitter.com/UtahStatesman/status/1109154347038830592?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 22, 2019</a></p></blockquote> <p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p> <p>Randy Simmons, a researcher who has long been deeply involved with Koch-related organizations, was named as the Koch professor. Simmons has published several reports attacking renewable energy, in addition to his anti-government book Beyond the Roots of Politics: Government Failure.<em> </em>One of his op-eds, in Newsweek, denouncing wind power and suggesting states should not support it, received national attention after Newsweek failed to disclose Simmons’ ties to the Kochs. Simmons declined to comment for this story, though he has been a prominent public voice.</p> <p>But it was the Koch donation of $25 million in 2017 that supercharged their influence on campus.</p> <p>Based on public documents and interviews with those involved, the university used the money to hire 13 of 19 staff members from a prominent libertarian think tank that was previously independent of the university, Strata Policy, and place them at the university’s new think tank, the Center for Growth and Opportunity (CGO). Strata has backed conservative positions on issues such as fossil fuel dependence, public land management<strong> </strong>and signed a letter in support of Donald Trump’s controversial downsizing of national monuments.</p> <p>Even though the CGO’s physical building is on university grounds, it shares a legal address with Strata Policy, about two miles from campus, according to tax filings and employee pay stubs.</p> <p>Its leadership has strong Koch ties. And Randy Simmons, who had been named the Koch professor, became the center’s outreach director.</p> <p>Since then, faculty at USU have voted to convene a <a class="u-underline" href="https://usustatesman.com/task-force-created-monitor-controversial-koch-donation/" data-link-name="in body link">task force</a> to monitor the donation and evaluate its effects on academic freedom.</p> <p>“From what I have seen, the CGO is falling right in line with what you would expect from a Koch-funded center,” said Arthur Caplan, a professor of environmental economics at USU.</p> <p>A School of Business professor, who requested anonymity due to fear of retribution from university administrators, said the center’s purpose is to “persuade these policy makers about public lands, anti-green energy and such,” the professor said. “It’s not academically sound research, what we look for in a business school.”</p> <p>The professor cited articles such as “Reexamining presidential power over national monuments,” published by CGO research director Megan Hansen in The Hill newspaper in 2018. The piece praised a Republican senator for his efforts to prevent future presidents designating national monuments in Utah.</p> <p>Another example in The Hill, by Josh Smith, CGO’s research manager, criticized an incentive for people who install solar panels.</p> <p>USU spokesman Vitale said Center for Growth and Opportunity and Strata Policy have no connections to each other, and Strata has never been associated with the university. Randy Simmons declined to comment for this story.</p> <p>“We are completely independent of our funders in how we select the research we do,” said Parker Jeppesen, communications director at the CGO. “Our donors are completely walled off from the research process.”</p> <h2>‘A libertarian experience’</h2> <p>Some Koch Scholars describe their experience as an attempt at indoctrination of libertarian ideals, such as free markets and little-to-no environmental regulation.</p> <p>According to the Koch Scholar’s <a class="u-underline" href="https://www.growthopportunity.org/student/koch-scholars" data-link-name="in body link">website</a>, the group’s purpose is to “meet weekly to discuss classic and contemporary literary works for a few hours over dinner.”</p> <p>“Definitely a majority libertarian experience,” said Savanna Jones, 21, who attended the business school as an economics major and will attend Georgetown University Law School this fall. “The professors all were pretty much of one mind and the majority of the students attracted to the program were as well.”</p> <p>Jones says the required reading given to scholars simply used different analogies to “tell the same story” of the failures of government, a pillar of libertarian thinking.</p> <p>“I just felt like we were going in circles,” she said.</p> <p>Angel Lopez says he usually remains quiet during discussions and regrets the few instances he spoke up to offer an alternative view of more liberal ideals. “The professors have very strong viewpoints and kind of shut yours down, I had that happen to me maybe once or twice,” Lopez said.</p> <p>William Shughart, a Utah State University professor and a faculty advisor for the Koch Scholars program, disagrees with this assessment. He says said the program works to ensure students are receiving a well-rounded education, encourages “a lively discussion,” and has even put Karl Marx on the syllabus.</p> <p>“We’ve never done anything to prevent students from expressing their points of view,” Shughart said. “I’m disappointed to hear that, but that’s certainly not our intention.”</p> <p>Lopez had planned to major in both marketing and economics, but after his experience as a Koch Scholar, he changed his mind. Economics just wasn’t that appealing to him anymore.</p> <div class="after-article js-after-article"></div> </div> <figure id="img-2" class="element element-image img--landscape fig--narrow-caption fig--has-shares " data-component="image" data-media-id="3dff657dab6b5298f8bf89259bdfdf5d85cf3d08"> <div class="u-responsive-ratio"><picture><source srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/3dff657dab6b5298f8bf89259bdfdf5d85cf3d08/0_0_3543_2389/master/3543.jpg?width=620&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=d394427aa91074cee1293a771e550ce5 1240w" media="(min-width: 660px) and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 1.25), (min-width: 660px) and (min-resolution: 120dpi)" sizes="620px" /><source srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/3dff657dab6b5298f8bf89259bdfdf5d85cf3d08/0_0_3543_2389/master/3543.jpg?width=620&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=cd89d48603902c4163797ad96f26249a 620w" media="(min-width: 660px)" sizes="620px" /><source srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/3dff657dab6b5298f8bf89259bdfdf5d85cf3d08/0_0_3543_2389/master/3543.jpg?width=605&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=0f9b2333baae96a7a0c2c2f9de6d7997 1210w" media="(min-width: 480px) and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 1.25), (min-width: 480px) and (min-resolution: 120dpi)" sizes="605px" /><source srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/3dff657dab6b5298f8bf89259bdfdf5d85cf3d08/0_0_3543_2389/master/3543.jpg?width=605&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=febc2e77b779ed52cc9b5eb9a046af64 605w" media="(min-width: 480px)" sizes="605px" /><source srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/3dff657dab6b5298f8bf89259bdfdf5d85cf3d08/0_0_3543_2389/master/3543.jpg?width=445&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=d5bf104c4c9916e56a75f02de216495a 890w" media="(min-width: 0px) and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 1.25), (min-width: 0px) and (min-resolution: 120dpi)" sizes="445px" /><source srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/3dff657dab6b5298f8bf89259bdfdf5d85cf3d08/0_0_3543_2389/master/3543.jpg?width=445&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=100dc36317ae81f8a9df73a92a2f7af5 445w" media="(min-width: 0px)" sizes="445px" /></picture></div> </figure> <p>The post <a href="https://usustatesman.com/charles-koch-gave-25m-to-our-university-has-it-become-a-rightwing-mouthpiece/">The Charles Koch Foundation donated $25 million to USU, here’s how it’s impacted the university</a> appeared first on <a href="https://usustatesman.com">The Utah Statesman</a>.</p> ]]></content:encoded> <wfw:commentRss>https://usustatesman.com/charles-koch-gave-25m-to-our-university-has-it-become-a-rightwing-mouthpiece/feed/</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>5</slash:comments> </item> <item> <title>UnKoch USU: Speaker voices concerns about 2017 Koch donation</title> <link>https://usustatesman.com/unkoch-usu-speaker-voices-concerns-2017-koch-donation/</link> <dc:creator><![CDATA[Carter Moore]]></dc:creator> <pubDate>Wed, 21 Feb 2018 23:17:12 +0000</pubDate> <category><![CDATA[News]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Charles Koch Foundation]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Koch brothers]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Koch donation]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Koch funding]]></category> <category><![CDATA[SOSNR]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Student Organization for Society and Natural Resources]]></category> <category><![CDATA[UnKoch my campus]]></category> <category><![CDATA[USU]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://usustatesman.com/?p=22021328</guid> <description><![CDATA[<p>Utah State University entered a deal that may seriously threaten academic freedom, argued Ralph Wilson, research director and cofounder of…</p> <p>The post <a href="https://usustatesman.com/unkoch-usu-speaker-voices-concerns-2017-koch-donation/">UnKoch USU: Speaker voices concerns about 2017 Koch donation</a> appeared first on <a href="https://usustatesman.com">The Utah Statesman</a>.</p> ]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Utah State University entered a deal that may seriously threaten academic freedom, argued Ralph Wilson, research director and cofounder of the advocacy group UnKoch My Campus, Tuesday evening. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Wilson was invited to speak at USU by the Student Organization for Society and Natural Resources. He and his group feel that by USU accepting the 2017 Charles G. Koch Foundation gift of $25 million, the university has accepted the strings that may be attached to the donation.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“The amount of donor influence that the Kochs exert is unique,” Wilson said.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Since 2007, the Charles G. Koch Foundation, started by the Kansas businessman who shares its name, has donated a total of $28.4 million to USU. This includes the joint gift with Jon M. Huntsman in 2017 which prompted </span><a href="https://usustatesman.com/sold-usu-students-protest-25-million-donation-charles-koch-foundation/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">student protests</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> and responses from university administration. The USU Faculty Senate voted Feb. 5 to create a </span><a href="https://usustatesman.com/task-force-created-monitor-controversial-koch-donation/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">task force</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> to monitor the funds from the donation. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“They are leveraging universities for political gain,” Wilson said. “They are actively training and recruiting students for this free market army that Charles Koch is creating.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">UnKoch My Campus began at Florida State University, which has received more than $2 million from the Koch Foundation. Wilson quoted a memo from the then Economics Department head of Florida State, Bruce Benson, who wrote to his staff that there are constraints on the donation, including censorship of graduate dissertations, stipulations on the hiring of faculty, and the advocacy for libertarian viewpoints at FSU.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“Not only does this memo reflect the view of Benson, but also reflects the donor’s understanding of what their intent was,” Wilson said, after saying that Benson sent the memo to the Koch foundation, and received confirmation of the goals he outlined. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Wilson said the donation to FSU gave the Koch’s power to hire and fire non-tenure track faculty, pick the chair of the department and create new programs and courses, none of which was made public to the students.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The group also found that the Koch Foundation had been exerting prior review on graduate students’ dissertation topics, of which Wilson said, “I honestly can’t think of a greater affront to academic freedom.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Wilson was then asked if these prior review rights were typical of awarded grants.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“There is definitely right to the donor, and the donor has expectations,” he answered. “One of the huge differences here, is that this is curricular. This is about teaching courses, this is about hiring, this is about so many things that should never have strings attached.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">One audience member engaged Wilson in debate by saying UnKoch My Campus was anti-conservative, pointing out that they didn’t oppose gifts from liberal donors like George Soros. Wilson responded that his group had no political ideology behind it.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“We are not criticizing people who are donating to universities. We’re not criticizing people who have political opinions,” Wilson said. The group’s main concern is that a donation from the Koch Foundation gives donors powers, rights and privileges that should only be given to faculty and administration.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Wilson then talked specifically about the contract between the Koch Foundation and USU. He pointed out clause 9b, which states that the Koch Foundation has sole and absolute discretion to pull funding with as little as 30 days notice. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">When asked what other examples he had specifically concerning USU’s relationships with the Koch Foundation, Wilson told a story of a time he visited a research symposium that featured students from the Huntsman business school at USU. He asked some students if they were going to publish their research in a peer-reviewed academic journal, and they told him no, that it was for a policy report, Wilson said</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The research in question, he said, dealt with non-renewable energy and gave undue praise to the fossil fuel industry, in which the Koch’s are deeply ingrained.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Frank De Jong, the Student Organization for Society and Natural Resources club president, expressed concern that the Koch’s history of being “anti-environment regulation” might affect the College of Natural Resources. He said SOSNR is not only about the natural resources, but also about society as a whole, and thus feels the need to stand for academic rights. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“If a corporation is checking in on a college and making sure they are doing what they want, it impedes on the academic freedom of the university,” De Jong said. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">—</span><a href="mailto:carter.moore@aggiemail.usu.edu"><span style="font-weight: 400;">carter.moore@aggiemail.usu.edu</span></a></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">@carterthegrreat</span></p> <p><em>Editor’s note: This article has been updated to clarify the intent of the student research on non-renewable energy.</em></p> <p>The post <a href="https://usustatesman.com/unkoch-usu-speaker-voices-concerns-2017-koch-donation/">UnKoch USU: Speaker voices concerns about 2017 Koch donation</a> appeared first on <a href="https://usustatesman.com">The Utah Statesman</a>.</p> ]]></content:encoded> </item> <item> <title>Task force created to monitor the controversial Koch donation</title> <link>https://usustatesman.com/task-force-created-monitor-controversial-koch-donation/</link> <dc:creator><![CDATA[Alison Berg]]></dc:creator> <pubDate>Tue, 06 Feb 2018 16:36:55 +0000</pubDate> <category><![CDATA[All]]></category> <category><![CDATA[News]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Charles Koch Foundation]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Koch brothers]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Koch donation]]></category> <category><![CDATA[USU]]></category> <category><![CDATA[USU faculty senate]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://usustatesman.com/?p=22020649</guid> <description><![CDATA[<p>The Utah State University Faculty Senate voted Monday to create a task force charged with monitoring the $25 million gift…</p> <p>The post <a href="https://usustatesman.com/task-force-created-monitor-controversial-koch-donation/">Task force created to monitor the controversial Koch donation</a> appeared first on <a href="https://usustatesman.com">The Utah Statesman</a>.</p> ]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Utah State University Faculty Senate voted Monday to create a task force charged with monitoring the</span><a href="https://usustatesman.com/koch-foundation-fund-new-research-institution-usu/"><span style="font-weight: 400;"> $25 million </span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">gift donated last summer by the Charles Koch Foundation.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The vote came to 26 senators in favor of the task force, 21 senators against it and two abstaining.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Faculty Senate President Kimberly Lott is now tasked with selecting members for the task force, which will be discussed further at the Faculty </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">Senate executive committee meeting Feb. 20. </span></p> <div id="attachment_22020654" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignright"> <div class="media-credit-container alignright" style="max-width: 310px"> <img fetchpriority="high" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-22020654" class="size-medium wp-image-22020654" src="https://usustatesman.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/koch-vote-2-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" srcset="https://usustatesman.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/koch-vote-2-300x200.jpg 300w, https://usustatesman.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/koch-vote-2-1000x667.jpg 1000w, https://usustatesman.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/koch-vote-2-335x223.jpg 335w, https://usustatesman.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/koch-vote-2-1050x700.jpg 1050w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /><span class="media-credit"></span> </div> <p id="caption-attachment-22020654" class="wp-caption-text">USU Faculty Senate President Kimberly Lott at the meeting held Feb. 5.</p></div> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Though Lott had not yet considered details of the task force, she anticipated the group will collect input from various campus individuals and organizations about the gift and ensure transparency in its usage.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The donation, which came in May, funds the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business’ new Center for Growth and Opportunity which aims to “explore, through research and education programs, the scientific foundation of the interaction between individuals, business, and government to improve well-being for individuals and society,” according to the contract between USU and the Charles Koch Foundation.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Charles Koch Foundation was founded in 1980 and “funds research and education that helps people expand their horizons, develop their skills, and help others,” according to the foundation’s website.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Before voting, the body debated the controversy surrounding The Koch Foundation, as well as time and investment required to form a committee.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Lisa Gabbert, English associate professor, said “I think the purpose with the Koch donation being a fairly controversial donation, is closure,” in discussion of </span><a href="https://usustatesman.com/sold-usu-students-protest-25-million-donation-charles-koch-foundation/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">controversy surrounding the Koch Brothers </span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">and whether their donations come with influence over a university.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">While Charles and David Koch, commonly referred to as “the Koch brothers” have earned a reputation for donating billions to Republican political campaigns and funding conservative-leaning research, USU spokesman Tim Vitale stressed the Koch donation comes with “no strings attached.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">According to the contract between the two entities, the Charles Koch Foundation will donate up to $1.25 million every year until 2027 in early February. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">However, Vitale said, either party has the option of ending the agreement if conflicts arise.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">@Alison__berg</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">alisonberg28@gmail.com</span></p> <p>The post <a href="https://usustatesman.com/task-force-created-monitor-controversial-koch-donation/">Task force created to monitor the controversial Koch donation</a> appeared first on <a href="https://usustatesman.com">The Utah Statesman</a>.</p> ]]></content:encoded> </item> <item> <title>‘SOLD’: USU students protest $25 million donation from Charles Koch Foundation</title> <link>https://usustatesman.com/sold-usu-students-protest-25-million-donation-charles-koch-foundation/</link> <comments>https://usustatesman.com/sold-usu-students-protest-25-million-donation-charles-koch-foundation/#comments</comments> <dc:creator><![CDATA[Alyssa Roberts]]></dc:creator> <pubDate>Sun, 11 Jun 2017 01:03:07 +0000</pubDate> <category><![CDATA[All]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Campus News]]></category> <category><![CDATA[News]]></category> <category><![CDATA[$25 million]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Center for Growth and Opportunity]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Charles Koch Foundation]]></category> <category><![CDATA[ideology]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Jon M. Huntsman School of Business]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Koch donation]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Koch funding]]></category> <category><![CDATA[research]]></category> <category><![CDATA[USU]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Utah State]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Utah State University]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://usustatesman.com/?p=22013560</guid> <description><![CDATA[<p>“We have a Koch problem,” was one message projected onto Utah State University’s Jon M. Huntsman School of Business Monday…</p> <p>The post <a href="https://usustatesman.com/sold-usu-students-protest-25-million-donation-charles-koch-foundation/">‘SOLD’: USU students protest $25 million donation from Charles Koch Foundation</a> appeared first on <a href="https://usustatesman.com">The Utah Statesman</a>.</p> ]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“We have a Koch problem,” was one message projected onto Utah State University’s Jon M. Huntsman School of Business Monday night in response to the school’s acceptance of a $25 million donation from the Charles Koch Foundation. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">An independent group of USU students organized a demonstration to protest the school’s acceptance of the donation. The students projected anti-Koch images onto Jon M. Huntsman Hall. Along with, “We have a Koch problem,” another graphic declared the Huntsman school “SOLD,” with a sale price of $25 million. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">A press release anonymously distributed Thursday said the donation “</span><span style="font-weight: 400;">poses a serious concern for the reputation and academic integrity of Utah State University.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The donation was part of a joint $50 million contribution from both the Koch foundation and The Huntsman Foundation. While the $25 million from The Huntsman Foundation will largely go toward expanding the Huntsman Scholar program, the Koch portion will help establish a new research entity, the Center for Growth and Opportunity. It will also allow the school to hire six additional professors to be employed at the Huntsman school and conduct research at the Center. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The $25 million from the Koch foundation will be distributed at a rate of $2.5 million per year for 10 years. The Koch foundation maintains the right to terminate the funding at any time, according to a donation agreement dated May 6. It’s this stipulation that student critics said is the biggest indicator the donation comes with “multiple strings attached.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“As long as USU wants to take this money,” the press release states, “the Charles Koch Foundation will have influence over more teachers, more research and inadvertently, the culture of USU’s business college.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The release’s distributors cited another element of the affiliation agreement as indicating that the Koch donation comes with “strings attached.” The agreement requires USU to inform the Koch Foundation of “any testimony to a legislative or other government body [the recipients] intend to make, whether in connection with [recipient’s] academic research or otherwise.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Students who criticized the donation argued that, though the Koch foundation is technically barred by Internal Revenue Service regulations from attempting to influence legislation, it seemed the inclusion of the above stipulation in the affiliation agreement was not “void of political intentions.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Other Koch-funded research institutions, including USU’s own Institute of Political Economy, have been accused of conducting research with ideological biases that favor the Koch foundation’s libertarian economic agenda. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">According to the press release, USU professor Randy Simmons faced harsh criticism for his contributions to Koch-funded research that attempted to convince North Carolina voters to “abandon” that state’s renewable energy efforts, according to the press release. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Critics accused Simmons, researcher Ryan Yonk and his colleagues at Logan-based Strata Policy, a Koch-funded libertarian think tank, of using flawed statistical calculations “to blame the Great Recession on renewable energy.” </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“I believe this has serious implications as well for students and faculty who are trying to secure funding or the support necessary in order to conduct legitimate science,” said Forrest Schoessow, a graduate student and researcher at USU. “We don’t want to be on the wrong side of history here, and we don’t want to destroy opportunities before they are ever created due to damaging publicity that criticizes USU’s transparency, institutional integrity and research credibility.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The university maintains it will continue to uphold “rigorous” standards for research and academic oversight “that we’ve always had for our research,” said Tim Vitale, USU’s executive director of public relations and marketing. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Vitale acknowledged that the university was aware research produced by other Koch-funded institutions was criticized for promoting an ideological agenda but said, “that is not the case here. We made sure that those mechanisms and oversight controls are clear and in place.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“The rules from the start were transparency, transparency, transparency,” Vitale said. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">USU student Anders Hart, who publicly opposed the most recent donation as well as a $1.54 million donation in 2015, said he thinks the expected outcomes of Koch-funded research will likely manifest for USU’s new research center the same way they have at other Koch-backed institutions. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“We know from the Koch people themselves that the purpose of their donations is to influence politics and advance a libertarian agenda,” Hart said. “I don’t want billionaires using my university for their political purposes while claiming to be charitable.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In accepting the donation, USU surpassed Florida State University and Texas Tech University to become one of the top Koch-funded universities in the country — second only to George Mason University. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">— </span><a href="mailto:ac.roberts95@gmail.com"><span style="font-weight: 400;">ac.roberts95@gmail.com</span></a></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">@alyssarbrts</span></p> <p>Photo by Katherine Taylor</p> <p>The post <a href="https://usustatesman.com/sold-usu-students-protest-25-million-donation-charles-koch-foundation/">‘SOLD’: USU students protest $25 million donation from Charles Koch Foundation</a> appeared first on <a href="https://usustatesman.com">The Utah Statesman</a>.</p> ]]></content:encoded> <wfw:commentRss>https://usustatesman.com/sold-usu-students-protest-25-million-donation-charles-koch-foundation/feed/</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>7</slash:comments> </item> </channel> </rss>