The billionaire Koch brothers’ growing, controversial influence on higher education has reached Syracuse University.

SU’s Martin J. Whitman School of Management announced in November its plans to create the Institute for an Entrepreneurial Society, funded by a $1.75 million grant from the Charles Koch Foundation. The institute and its objectives closely mirror that of Koch-funded free market institutes at other universities, some of which have evoked academic freedom concerns because of apparent Koch control over research topics.

The school’s receipt of the grant has elicited concerns among some SU faculty members, who are worried about what it means for academic freedom at the university and that it runs counter to SU’s past pledges to environmental sustainability.

The Koch brothers, Charles and David, have spent tens of millions of dollars to support research at hundreds of universities. That research has sometimes been used by lawmakers to advocate for legislation supporting free-market capitalism and opposing environmental regulations, economic systems that benefit the Kochs.

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In the past, Koch gifts to universities have often come with strings attached. That was most recently revealed at Florida State University, where researchers have been forced to study material that satisfies Koch ideals.

The Whitman School’s contract with the Koch foundation is not public, though experts said it’s likely the foundation’s gift to the school comes with similar intentions. Officials within SU leadership did not return requests for comment on behalf of the university on this story.

“Here’s the concern: What expectation does Charles Koch have for Syracuse University? The contracts that we’ve dug up at other schools, they provide a lot of hints of what to look out for,” said Connor Gibson, a researcher for Greenpeace, an organization that fights climate change. “… If you’re not doing what the Koch foundation likes, you’re not going to get the rest of what they promised.”

The Whitman School will recruit Ph.D. students to work and conduct research specifically in the institute. Maria Minniti, the founding director of the institute, said there are “absolutely not” any strings attached to the Koch grant.

“I never would have accepted that,” she said. “The grant was vetted by our lawyer. We have a standard procedure.”

But experts said there are already signs that the Koch foundation has leverage over the institute. The SU News release announcing the creation of the institute states that it will “foster societal well-being.” The term “well-being,” experts said, is code language for deregulated capitalism.

At a Koch donor summit in 2014, James Otteson, a professor of political economy at Wake Forest University, argued that framing free market ideologies behind the term “well-being” would be an effective public relations spin, as The New Yorker first reported.

“They’re shifting toward this idea of well-being, but it’s their own unique definition of it that defines well-being essentially as small government,” said Ralph Wilson, a co-founder of UnKoch My Campus, a campaign that studies the Kochs’ influence at universities.

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Syracuse University Senate’s Committee on Academic Freedom, Tenure and Professional Ethics is “currently looking into” the grant, said Thomas Keck, chair of the committee and professor of political science. Keck declined to comment further. Additionally, the senate’s Agenda Committee plans to task the Committee on Research with also reviewing the grant and determining whether it is “fully in accordance with academic freedom and other values of the university,” according to a dossier that has circulated among faculty.

“The influence of that money on the students and on the school and on the campus is very concerning,” said Dana Cloud, a professor of communication and rhetorical studies and member of the academic freedom committee. Cloud emphasized that she was not speaking on behalf of the committee.

The Koch brothers’ spending in higher education has steadily increased over the years. They funneled more than $23.4 million into colleges and universities in 2014 after spending $19.3 million in 2013 and $12.7 million in 2012, according to the Center for Public Integrity. They gave money to 216 colleges and universities in 2014, according to the center.

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The Kochs have often funded institutes supporting graduate student research of free market concepts, similar to the one being created at Whitman. Such institutes exist at Creighton University, Florida State University, the University of Kentucky and West Virginia University, among others. The institutes are modeled after George Mason University’s Mercatus Center, to which the Kochs have donated millions of dollars over the years.

Experts said that when the Koch brothers fund those institutes, it’s typically to encourage research endorsing deregulation. The Mercatus Center has been cited by U.S. Senate Democrats for denying climate change, for example, and the Koch-funded Institute of Political Economy at Utah State University recently published research detailing the “negative effects” of federal environmental policies.

Koch Industries subsidiaries, such as their paper and energy companies, stand to lose from environmental regulation, Gibson said. Koch Industries also ranks eighth among U.S. corporations with the most air pollution, according to the University of Massachusetts Amherst’s Political Economy Research Institute.

Matt Huber, an associate professor of geography at SU who researches energy and capitalism, said the Koch brothers are “notorious” for working to prevent action that fights climate change.

In some cases, the Kochs’ desire for deregulation has compromised academic freedom. The Kochs’ agreement with Utah State University stipulated that researchers funded by the foundation follow objectives aligned with the Kochs, according to Inside Higher Ed. And in 2014, Kansas University professor Art Hall was paid by the Kochs to study and testify against the state’s renewable energy standard, a regulation that requires the increased use of renewable energy sources. 

But the case that most closely mirrors what experts said could happen at SU is that of FSU, where the Kochs have funded graduate student fellowships.

Based on internal memos and documents, a joint report by UnKoch My Campus and the FSU Progress Coalition revealed the Kochs had significant control over the fellows’ research. Beginning in 2007, Ph.D. students at FSU were forced to choose dissertation topics that complied with the Kochs’ objectives, according to the report. The Kochs even had the option on an annual basis to discontinue their funding if dissertation topics didn’t comply with their ideas, per the report.

“One could reasonably assume it’s similar to what will be going on there at Syracuse,” Wilson said.

If that’s the case, and if the institute promotes research downplaying climate change, it would seem to conflict with the stances SU has taken on climate change. SU has previously committed to sustainability, with a long-term Climate Action Plan to become carbon neutral by 2040.

Huber, the associate professor of geography, said SU’s accepting of the grant is a considerable setback in its efforts to become a leader in the global sustainability movement.

“It’s just a slap in the face for those of us that have tried to force Syracuse University to take climate change seriously with their actions,” he said. “To me, it’s a huge reversal of those actions by aligning themselves with this.”

Published on February 1, 2017 at 10:01 pm

Contact Michael: mdburk01@syr.edu