Tell me about your background and how you became involved with UnKoch My Campus. In all, 41 states and the District of Columbia house at least one college or university that received Koch foundation funding during 2014. This increased funding in 2014 follows a recent Center for Public Integrity investigation that revealed the Koch brothers, Charles and David, consider the higher educational programs they fund a “fully integrated” part of a massive organizational network fighting to enact deregulatory government policies and elect conservative political candidates. You have reached your limit of 4 free articles. The Koch brothers were two of the world’s most controversial billionaires. Charles Koch has long maintained close personal and financial ties to the university, which hosts a pair of research centers specializing in free market economics and individual liberty: the Mercatus Center and Institute for Humane Studies. They get to approve who gets hired and that is almost never allowed. Koch officials routinely cultivate relationships with professors and deans and fund specific courses of economic study pitched by them. In an earlier post, “The Koch Brothers Gifts to Higher Ed Come with Many Strings Attached” [ I discussed the decision by Brooklyn College to decline a gift from the Koch Brothers … If the wealthy 1 percent is able to use that wealth to define the priorities of our K-12 education and our higher education agendas, that's essentially giving very few people control over our country's production of knowledge — at least in the formalized institutions. The vast number of agreements between wealthy donors and the college and universities they fund are never made public, so it’s impossible to comprehensively assess the conditions attached by such benefactors. We hope that our research can be used by community members and campus stakeholders to resist the ability of Koch and any other corporate donor to leverage their university to their private benefit. Facing South recently spoke with Samantha Parsons, who co-founded UnKoch My Campus when she was a student at GMU and currently serves as the group's campaigns director. By 2019, Charles G. Koch and David H. Koch, commonly referred to as the Koch brothers, ... and loan assistance through organizations like the United Negro College Fund. The intention behind the fellowship is to fund someone with an interest in free-market economics. I am very concerned about the concept of the production of knowledge in our country, whether it's at the K-12 or the higher education level. By The Kenyon Observer in Uncategorized on 1 June 2018 12 August 2018. There just seems to be some obvious parallels and overlaps to those agendas. In some cases, the Koch foundations have attempted, or succeeded, in attaching certain strings to their contributions, such as control over curriculum, and more recently, obtaining personal information about students. As campaign director, I work with faculty who are using the investigation into their university's relationship with Koch to build up their faculty union and really agitate and get their faculty senate to be engaged in the decision-making process of the university, so they have the final say over what a donor can and cannot expect from their school. Detractors argue the Koch brothers’ college-focused money, by helping advance a philosophy of economic liberty, is eroding a fundamental aspect … (Photo from the UnKoch My Campus Facebook page.). By Rebekah Barber March 15, 2019. unkoch.jpg . Obviously, that sparked our interest mostly because they have historically been a funder and proponent of charter schools and the privatization of K-12 education. What have you learned in recent years about the influence of Koch brothers all across the country, and specifically in the South? But it’s not just in politics that the Koch brothers have a presence. UnKoch's analysis really starts at that level of researching what they're doing. And earlier this month, Suffolk University in Massachusetts split with the Beacon Hill Institute, a conservative think tank it helped fund — along with the Charles Koch Foundation. Those two moments were really powerful for me and inspired me as well as the other students in the organization to do more digging to understand why the Koch brothers are so active on our campus. Organizing against Koch influence on college campuses. Meanwhile, private foundations led by liberal political bankroller George Soros — the Kochs’ de facto Democratic foil who also heavily funds higher education — spent slightly more money on a smaller number colleges and universities than the Koch foundations did during 2014. he Koch brothers are supersizing their already hefty investments into college students’ hearts and minds. Students, activists, and community members involved with UnKoch My Campus are pushing back against the influence on higher education of the conservative billionaire brothers behind Koch Industries. They’ve been influential in higher education, too. How the Koch Brothers Are Influencing US Colleges . The program is a donor-created minor at UNC, and a certificate program at Duke. Cette histoire s'étend très loin dans le passé. The executive director of the department which now houses the center recently published a textbook and has partnered with different school districts in Arizona to create a dual enrollment high school class. Read More "Licensing requirements are a huge barrier for ex-prisoners." There are a few schools, however, that are no longer interested in getting a piece of that money. Sign up for our free newsletter for the latest news, trends & analysis. We are interested in pursuing their interest in K-12 because at their most recent donors' summit at the end of 2018 they announced that they would be focusing and putting more of their energy behind K-12 education. Soros’ Foundation to Promote Open Society directed $400,000 at Fordham University in New York City to conduct “field experiments on the role of money in the Democratic process.” The Ohio State University received $50,000 for a similar purpose — conducting research to “better understand the role that independent expenditures play in contemporary federal election campaigns.”. Almost all of the higher education programs the Koch foundations fund cleave to the brothers’ philosophy of promoting free markets and laissez-faire capitalism in the United States. “Our giving has expanded to support new research and programs on critical issues ranging from criminal justice reform to corporate welfare.”. Students, activists, and community members involved with UnKoch My Campus are pushing back against the influence on higher education of the conservative billionaire brothers behind Koch Industries. Among them are West Virginia University ($2.32 million), Arizona State University ($831,000), Florida State University ($265,948), Purdue University ($184,000) and Emporia State University in Kansas ($100,000). The brothers have mostly stayed out of politics directly (apart from David Koch’s stint as the vice presidential candidate for the Libertarian Party in 1980, positioned to the right of Ronald Reagan). That was ultimately the birthing story of UnKoch My Campus. Their control over the production of knowledge is really a primary strategy to have those impacts, in terms of the threats that they are proposing to climate change, posing to our democracy, to voting rights, to pensions for workers. This story is from the Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit, nonpartisan investigative media organization in Washington, D.C. Read more of its investigations on the influence of money in politics or follow it on Twitter. The University of Dayton in Ohio confirmed to the Center for Public Integrity that it is no longer accepting Koch-connected money. A copy of a grant agreement obtained by the Center for Public Integrity also indicates that the Charles Koch Foundation on April 13 agreed to pay Utah State University up to $1.54 million over three years to support the Institute of Political Economy in the university’s Jon M. Huntsman School of Business. 16 December 15 . All Rights Reserved. The Charles Koch Foundation, the main Koch-led foundation to support higher education, ended 2014 with $527.7 million in its account, according to federal tax records. Sign up to receive the top stories you need to know now on politics, health and more, © 2021 TIME USA, LLC. The reason why I think we are a valued voice in the movement against the Koch brothers is because historically there has been attention given to their funding of think tanks like the Cato Institute or the Heritage Foundation and their funding of groups like Americans for Prosperity. The Kochs are … The Washington Post—The Washington Post/Getty Images. But in 2013, students at schools including George Mason University (GMU) in Fairfax, Virginia — the top university recipient of Koch money — joined together to found the advocacy group UnKoch My Campus to address the undue influence of big money in academia. As we were discussing that in the student organization, our advisor told us about how the year prior, in 2011, the faculty senate at GMU had opened an investigation into GMU's relationship with private donors sparked by concerns that were raised at Florida State University. By Michael Wakin Over the past several decades, Charles and David Koch, the Kansas-based billionaire brothers, have stood on the vanguard of a libertarian crusade to push a conservative agenda and fundamentally shift American government to the right. That’s up from 210 schools in 2013 and 163 schools in 2012. Of the more than $11.6 million Bard received, $6 million went toward general support while more than $4.1 million specifically helped fund the school’s international programs. The network has been called "one of the nation's most influential political forces", "a shadow political party, c… They do amazing organizing by educating their peers about the ways in which the Kochs are using their university to push their policy agenda. The network was founded by Charles and David Koch and is made up of "several hundred" (another estimate is about 500) donors who pay a minimum of $100,000 each year, and work to influence American life in a conservative direction. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our. Can you tell us about that? We were just really trying to understand what that relationship looked like. We see a trend where the Koch Foundation will go to a campus and give a small amount of funding — perhaps for a lecture series — where they will bring in guest speakers to talk about the free market or the big program they fund on the concept of Western civilization, which is oftentimes paired with political science departments or philosophy departments and is focused on what it sounds like: studying the contributions of Europeans and primarily the contributions of white folks and Christian folks. If that goes well, they might give that professor a large gift to produce a center on campus. Dozens of college officials interviewed this year by the Center for Public Integrity assert that their professors retain full academic freedom and may teach as they see fit, regardless of who is funding their programs. Charles and David Koch, the billionaire brothers behind the Kansas-based Koch Industries oil and chemical conglomerate, are not the only wealthy donors to fund colleges and universities to further their own ends. That's another interesting layer to what we are seeing develop with their K-12 strategy: They are proponents of charter schools and completely privatizing K-12 education, and they are also leveraging these centers to have some influence over the curriculum in the public school system. All Rights Reserved. His publications promote what he calls the "truth and explanatory power " of eugenics research. Crowley was removed as chair of Troy's Department of Economics and administrators proceeded to censure the center with the intention of reshaping its mission statement. The online magazine of the Institute for Southern Studies, Koch influence on Southern schools remains in the spotlight, Charles Koch gave $90 million to influence higher ed in the South, Charter school power broker turns public education into private profits, Mississippi charter school supporters fought against public education for years. Most of that money went toward a scholarship program whose advisory board included two members representing the Charles Koch Foundation. Support independent media and a voice for change in the South! Knowing that GMU had received way more money than FSU ever had, these faculty members opened this investigation. This is your last free article. But the Charles Koch Foundation did indicate on its 2014 tax filing that it had already committed to divide more than $4 million among 11 schools, booking those payments in 2015. At George Mason University, documents—recently released as part of a student lawsuit—revealed that donors, including the Koch brothers, received direct influence over faculty hiring and academic freedom through their contracts with the University. Ainsi, au Danemark, la preuve de l'ouverture d'une molaire remonte au néolithique. Save on the cover price & free e-Gift card for Giftees! The electoral influence of the Koch brothers is similarly well-chronicled. We organize with those faculty and students to bring in community members, who also have a say in this fight. “We constantly examine and fine-tune our grantmaking as situations and needs change,” he added. They're giving millions in a bid to win students' hearts and minds. The Mercatus Center, a free-market think tank, then produces the research those networks rely upon to achieve their political objectives across the country. Please try again later. Jaschik said it's unusual for donors to participate in a scholarship selection process and that the arrangement has been widely criticized. The Kochs have funded over 400 universities across the country, including over 170 in the South alone. Not long after the conference, UnKoch was contacted by the Professional Firefighters of Alabama, a network of 45,000 public employees, who were running a campaign to save the state retirement system. Thirteen schools received six-figure amounts last year, led by Florida State University; The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.; Creighton University in Nebraska; Troy University in Alabama and Indiana University. The University of Arizona also has a Koch-funded center that has turned into a new department. The University of Maryland received $200,000 to support programs improving medical and public health systems in Myanmar, while Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., got $100,000 to host Guatemala’s former attorney general as a visiting scholar at the school’s Institute for Women, Peace and Security. In February 2017, GMU students filed a lawsuit against the university and its fundraising foundation to obtain access to Koch gift agreements. I attended George Mason University from 2012 to 2016 and while in a student organization — the Environmental Action Group — I learned about who the Koch brothers were and learned from a faculty advisor of the university's relationship with the Charles Koch Foundation. A textbook used for PPE courses, "Philosophy, Politics, and Economics: An Anthology," was written in 2015 by four NC PPE faculty; Munger (Duke), Jonathan Anomaly (a former Duke professor who recently started a PPE program at the University of San Diego), Geoffrey Brennan (UNC/Duke), and Geoffrey Sayre-McCord (UNC). Koch Brothers’ Money Influencing Colleges and Nonprofits Dan Wright 2013-07-24 A report by the Investigative Reporting Workshop details the extensive amount of money Charles and David Koch … Some GMU students are taking the university to court over alleged influence by the Koch brothers and their $96 million in donations on the university's hiring practices. His professor, who was Koch-funded, was using a textbook called "Global Warming and Other Eco Myths" and had told students that if they wanted to debate climate change they could leave and not come back. But, as history has shown us, some of the most successful, determined resistance to attacks on democracy has also come from those campuses in the South. But some contributions closely align with Soros’ domestic political and policy leanings, such as campaign finance regulation. In 2018, at a Koch brothers conference, it became clear that the umbrella organization was changing its focus. You can unsubscribe at any time. 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. … If they're able to establish these centers that aren't being monitored or aren't held to the same standards as your average academic department or research program, then it becomes run by the private donors. Read More: Here’s the New Way Republican Governors Are Pushing Their Ideas. From there, we got connected to other students at Florida State University and the University of Kansas who were doing the same investigation. The Koch network, by Charles Koch’s own estimate, plans to spend about $750 million during the 2016 election cycle. One of the primary strategies is doing research into what the Koch brothers are funding. Please attempt to sign up again. Koch funding has supported GMU's economics department, law school, and two affiliate think tanks: the Mercatus Center and the Institute for Humane Studies, which provides the much-needed talent pipeline of professors, researchers, and politicians who staff Koch's state and national networks. Rebekah is a research associate at the Institute for Southern Studies and writer for Facing South. © Copyright 2021 by the Institute for Southern Studies. That’s several million dollars more than the $19.3 million the Charles Koch Foundation and Fred C. and Mary R. Koch Foundation together spread among schools during 2013 — and nearly double the $12.7 million they spent in 2012. And of course there's beautiful work being done around money in politics — Koch Industries has been a leader in funding legislatures directly — but there hasn't been much attention given to what academic programs are funded. Berger helped author a report on the Koch brothers' influence on college campuses with another organizer, Connor Gibson. I would say the biggest threat they are posing is the ability to use their wealth to reshape the culture of our country and the priority conversations of our culture in a way that justifies their policy agenda and is also undemocratic. I understand the Koch brothers are now attempting to influence grade schools even more. Soros remains one of the nation’s most significant and reliable liberal political donors, having this year personally contributed $1 million to Priorities USA Action, a super PAC that is supporting Democratic presidential candidate, and another $1 million to American Bridge 21st Century, a super PAC that advocates against Republicans. With the support of Lindsey Berger, UnKoch's first executive director, we founded UnKoch through those initial student efforts. This appears to have destabilized the pension reform efforts in the state, with the number of lobbyists pushing pension reform on behalf of these interests dropping from 20 in 2016 to zero in 2017. Read More: Hillary Clinton Aired One-Fourth of All 2016 Campaign Ads So Far. A pair of private foundations led by the billionaire industrialists poured more than $23.4 million into U.S. colleges and universities during 2014, according to a Center for Public Integrity analysis of tax documents recently filed with the Internal Revenue Service. His "Defending Eugenics" is a provocative attempt to describe a positive eugenics, which portrays the eugenics movement as a well-founded discipline led by prominent scholars. Alan L. Hart (né Alberta Lucille Hart, également connu sous le nom de Robert Allen Bamford, Jr., (4 octobre 1890 - 1 er juillet 1962) est un médecin, radiologue, chercheur sur la tuberculose, écrivain et romancier américain.En 1917-1918, il est l'un des premiers hommes trans à subir une hystérectomie aux États-Unis et vit le reste de sa vie en tant qu'homme [1]. George Mason University, a public school in Northern Virginia about 15 miles from Washington, D.C., received almost $16.8 million — the majority of the money Koch foundations last year directed at higher education in 2014, and by far the most of any recipient. Subscribe for just 99¢. But they have uniquely leveraged their astronomical wealth to use the higher education system to push their conservative anti-regulatory agenda. Money and Influence: The Koch Brothers and Kenyon College. We started a campaign on campus for transparency on those gift agreements. The Koch brothers are supersizing their already hefty investments into college students’ hearts and minds. In addition to direct college funding, the Charles Koch Foundation and Fred C. & Mary G. Koch Foundation also provided dozens of educational scholarships and grants — most valued between $2,000 and $4,000 each — to college students, tax records show. The Koch foundations aren’t likely to submit tax returns covering their 2015 contributions until November 2016. They'll start with a lecture series and, if it goes well, they'll give a bit more money to fund an endowed professorship. * The request timed out and you did not successfully sign up. “Like many charities, the Charles Koch Foundation recognizes the importance of supporting a diversity of ideas so scholars and students can continue to push the frontiers of knowledge and help people discover new and better ways to live fulfilling lives,” Charles Koch Foundation spokesperson Trice Jacobson wrote in a statement. From there, we make that research publicly available in the hopes that folks on campuses — whether they are students, faculty, staff, or community members — recognize that what happens at the university is impacting us at the policy level. That is how they are able to influence who's getting hired and what's being produced through those centers. The centers are not always monitored or provided the oversight that your regular department would be, but then they'll hire professors through those centers who will teach within the regular department. Michael Munger is the director of the undergraduate political science program at Duke University, and the director of Duke's PPE program. The Washington Post's editorial board even came out in support of greater transparency over private donations at GMU. Today, the students are awaiting a decision as to whether that lawsuit, which they lost at the local level, will be heard by the Virginia Supreme Court. Charles and David Koch have been active in American politics since at least 1980, when David Koch was the Libertarian Party's vice-presidential nominee. Some of the most egregious evidence of the Koch network's anti-democratic agenda comes from their involvement at Southern universities. ; These developments should “make other schools take pause and move them to be more transparent” about their relationships with Koch-led foundations, said Kalin Jordan, a student at Suffolk University who helps lead the anti-Koch activist group UnKoch My Campus. They did at Western Carolina University in North Carolina, where numerous faculty members fought against the school creating a center for free enterprise that’s slated to receive Charles Koch Foundation support. At the annual Koch confab in Dana Point, California, in 2014, a top lieutenant of Charles and David Koch told a crowd of supporters that political success begins with reaching young minds in college lecture halls, thereby preparing bright, libertarian-leaning students to one day occupy the halls of political power. Percy Diiorio Foglesong Intro American Politics 23 March 2014 The Koch Influence The Koch brothers are very relevant in today’s politics because of the enormous influence they currently hold. The Koch Brothers once again try to buy influence over America, but this time in a very unprecedented way. Beacon Hill Institute plans to continue operating without a college affiliation. A complete list of Center for Public Integrity funders is found here.). Soros’ Foundation to Promote Open Society last year gave Willamette University in Salem, Oregon, more than $1 million last year to “establish a formal debate association in China.”. We were not in Kansas where they are from, we did not have a big oil or fossil-fuel engineering-focused department. The Koch brothers are funding “well-being” institutes on college campuses to promote right-wing, free-market ideology. In the past year, student and faculty activism has helped expose the fact that GMU provided the Koch Foundation influence over the hiring of faculty within their economics department, which was covered by the New York Times. Myanmar’s Creatives Fighting Military Rule With Art, Center for Public Integrity / Dave Levinthal, recent Center for Public Integrity investigation, Here’s the New Way Republican Governors Are Pushing Their Ideas, Here’s Where Republicans (And Some Democrats) Won, How the Koch Brothers Are Influencing U.S.