13
Mar
2017

Koch brothers and higher ed

categories: information literacy, teaching

Koch Foundation and Others Fund ASU’s Higher Ed ‘Redesign’

Paul Fain September 8, 2020

https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2020/09/08/koch-foundation-and-others-fund-asus-higher-ed-redesign

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Here are some excerpts regarding Koch brothers’ attempts to influence higher education:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/8/9/1230049/-Koch-Brothers-Influence-Peddling-Is-Your-Alma-Mater-on-the-List

The Charles G. Koch Foundation offered to give the university $1.5 million to hire two assistant professors and fund fellowships and undergraduate curriculum on free-enterprise topics.

“In exchange for his ‘gift,’ the donor got to assign specific readings, select speakers brought to campus and instruct them with regard to the focus of their lectures, shape the curriculum with new courses and specify the number of students in the courses, name the program’s director, and initiate a student club.”

How the Koch Brothers Are Influencing U.S. Colleges

Center for Public Integrity / Dave Levinthal Dec 15, 2015
http://time.com/4148838/koch-brothers-colleges-universities/
The most notable difference: While some of Soros’ higher education grants go to programs aligning with his domestic policy priorities, the majority are focused overseas, tax records show.

Spreading the Free-Market Gospel

What’s new and interesting about the Koch brothers’ approach to funding academics

DAVE LEVINTHAL

https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2015/10/spreading-the-free-market-gospel/413239/

It is well-known that the Kochs’ network has invested hundreds of millions of hard-to-track dollars in conservative political nonprofits that influence elections. The brothers, who earned theirbillions leading private oil, chemical, and manufacturing conglomerate Koch Industries Inc., were dominant forces in recent election cycles
The Kochs educational giving, while rarefied, isn’t the most abundant in the United States. Gordon Moore, the co-founder of Intel, with his wife Betty, this year pledged $100 million to the California Institute of Technology—and offered to let the school to spend it as it sees fit.
At the College of Charleston in South Carolina, for example, documents show the foundation wanted more than just academic excellence for its money. It wanted information about students it could potentially use for its own benefit

Among the proposed conditions: Teachings must align with the libertarian economic philosophy of Charles Koch, the Charles Koch Foundation would maintain partial control over faculty hiring and the chairman of the school’s economics department—a prominent economic theorist—must stay in place for another three years despite his plans to step down.

Florida State University ultimately didn’t agree to the initial requests when, in 2008, it reached a funding agreement with the foundation. It’s also tightened and clarified policies that affect private donors’ contributions to the university.

To Charles Koch, Universities Are Propaganda Machines

By Connor Gibson Updated Jan 27, 2017
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/connor-gibson/to-charles-koch-universit_b_9090404.html

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