[blind-democracy] Koch Brothers' Higher Education Investments Advance Political Goals

  • From: Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Sun, 08 Nov 2015 17:15:56 -0500

Koch Brothers' Higher Education Investments Advance Political Goals
Sunday, 08 November 2015 00:00 By Dave Levinthal, The Center for Public
Integrity | News Analysis
Charles Koch appears in a video promoting a partnership between Koch
Industries, the Charles Koch Foundation and the United Negro College Fund.
(Screenshot: Koch Industries)
Last year, a top lieutenant of Charles and David Koch's vast network of
philanthropic institutions laid bare the billionaire brothers' strategy to
evangelize their gospel of economic freedom.
Political success, Kevin Gentry told a crowd of elite supporters attending
the annual Koch confab in Dana Point, Calif., begins with reaching young
minds in college lecture halls, thereby preparing bright,
libertarian-leaning students to one day occupy the halls of political power.
"The [Koch] network is fully integrated, so it's not just work at the
universities with the students, but it's also building state-based
capabilities and election capabilities and integrating this talent
pipeline," he said.
"So you can see how this is useful to each other over time," he continued.
"No one else has this infrastructure. We're very excited about doing it."
The Center for Public Integrity obtained a previously unpublished audio
recording of the meeting, which focused on the Kochs' higher education
funding strategy, from liberal activists who produce The Undercurrent, an
online video program.
Higher education has become a top Koch priority in recent years. And funding
- as well as pushback against it - is increasing.
During 2013, a pair of private charitable foundations Charles Koch leads and
personally bankrolls combined to spread more than $19.3 million across 210
college campuses in 46 states and the District of Columbia, according to a
Center for Public Integrity analysis of Internal Revenue Service tax
filings.
That represents a significant increase from the $12.7 million the Koch
foundations distributed among 163 college campuses in 41 states and the
District of Columbia during 2012. It's also exponentially more than what the
Koch foundations together spent directly on higher education a decade ago.
The Center for Public Integrity reviewed hundreds of private documents,
emails and audio recordings that, along with interviews with more than 75
college officials, professors, students and others, indicate the Koch
brothers' spending on higher education is now a critical part of their
broader campaign to infuse politics and government with free-market
principles.
Spreading the Free-Market Gospel
It is no secret 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 their billions leading private oil,
chemical and manufacturing conglomerate Koch Industries Inc., were dominant
forces in recent election cycles. They're now poised to rank among the most
influential Americans shaping next year's presidential and congressional
vote.
Much less well known: their activities on college campuses.
The Kochs are among many wealthy political patrons who give money to
education, including conservative Robert McNair, independent Michael
Bloomberg and liberal billionaire financier George Soros. (The Center for
Public Integrity receives funding from the Open Society Foundations, which
Soros funds. A complete list of Center for Public Integrity funders is found
here.)
The Kochs' giving, however, has a laser-like focus on a specific,
politically relevant discipline - free market economics - unmatched by other
political mega-donors. Koch officials routinely cultivate relationships with
professors and deans and fund specific courses of economic study pitched by
them.
Detractors argue the Koch brothers' college-focused money, by helping
advance a philosophy of economic liberty, is eroding a fundamental aspect of
higher education: academic freedom.
But some conservatives and libertarians consider the Kochs' investments in
higher education a much-needed counterweight to an American higher education
system that historically tilts leftward.
And they explain the Kochs' decision to influence education most certainly
does not spring, as many liberal partisans would like the body politic to
believe, from the compulsions of steel-souled industrialists more concerned
about fortune and power than, say, protecting the environment or helping the
poor.
"Since the '60s, they've been imbued with the sense that the world would be
a better place if the country instituted their libertarian values," author
Brian Doherty said of the brothers.
"For Charles, his time horizon, as he gets a little older, has become a
little shorter. He has lots of money, and he wants to see action in his
lifetime," continued Doherty, the author of "Radicals for Capitalism: A
Freewheeling History of the Modern American Libertarian Movement" and senior
editor at Reason who's interviewed both Koch brothers.
"I'm not doing anything I'm ashamed of," Charles Koch himself told Forbes
last month. "You've gotta change the hearts and minds of the people to
understand what really makes society fairer and what's going to change their
lives. And it's not more of this government control."
The Kochs educational giving, while rarefied, isn't the nation's largest.
With his wife, Betty, Gordon Moore, the co-founder of Intel, this year
pledged $100 million to the California Institute of Technology - and allowed
the school to spend it as it sees fit.
Koch defenders also note, accurately, that the pair has donated generously
to educational causes not necessarily animated by political considerations:
the Smithsonian, public television, media organizations, music scholarships,
medical research and a variety of others. David Koch, for his part, has
poured hundreds of millions of dollars into medicine and the arts over the
years.
But it's clear where there is an ideological bent to their giving: Tax
returns, as well as emails and private documents exchanged among Charles
Koch Foundation officers and various college and university officials,
indicate the foundation's commitment to funding academics is deep and
growing. Koch education funding, which is almost singularly focused on
economics, also sometimes comes with certain strings attached.
Also see: "How Colleges Use Koch Money"
Recruiting New Believers
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 - and influence over information officials at the public university
disseminated about the Charles Koch Foundation.
It sought, for one, the names and email addresses - "preferably not ending
in .edu" - of any student who participated in a Koch-sponsored class,
reading group, club or fellowship. The stated purpose: "to notify students
of opportunities" through both the Charles Koch Foundation and the Institute
for Humane Studies at George Mason University.
And the foundation certainly did not want the College of Charleston to speak
to news reporters about its Koch-funded programs without prior consent from
the Charles Koch Foundation.
"[I]f you intend to engage in press releases or other media outreach
associated with programmatic activities, please notify us in advance,"
Charles Koch Foundation officials Charlie Ruger and Derek Johnson wrote
Peter Calcagno, director of the College of Charleston's Center for Public
Choice and Market Process. "We consider media outreach a collaborative
effort and would appreciate the opportunity to both assist and advise."
Donors are often sent unpublished press releases about programs they fund
"as a courtesy so that they will know the contents," school spokesman Mike
Robertson said.
At Florida State University, one of the nation's top educational recipients
of Koch foundation money this decade - about $1.38 million from 2010 through
2013 - a similar request is more direct.
"FSU will allow [the Charles Koch Foundation] to review and approve the text
of any proposed publicity which includes mention of CKF," reads a memorandum
of understanding signed between the university and foundation in 2013.
Such provisions aren't new at Florida State University: the Center for
Public Integrity last year reported that the Charles Koch Foundation first
attempted in 2007 to place specific conditions on its financial support of
the school, when it initially considered providing funding.
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.
Relationships between certain school officials and the Charles Koch
Foundation personnel nevertheless blossomed. One gatekeeper to Charles
Koch's riches practically became family - if not by blood, then money.
"Thought you might want to see our 'nephew!'" wrote executive assistant
Tonja Guilford to David Rasmussen, her boss and dean of Florida State
University's College of Social Sciences and Public Policy.
Attached to the October 2014 email were photos of this "nephew" - the
tow-headed toddler son of John C. Hardin, director of university relations
for the Charles Koch Foundation.
Hardin and his family had previously visited with Florida State University
officials in Tallahassee. Talk of future get-togethers, and more pictures of
Hardin's son in a Superman costume, aloft in his father's arms, would
follow.
"I was just thinking this morning I needed new pictures to post outside my
door," Guilford fawned to Hardin in an email. "He is just way too cute in
his superman costume. He's my 'little' superman - I just love him!"
Friend-Raising
Rasmussen, who routinely pursues private funding on behalf of his
department, declined interview requests from the Center for Public
Integrity, as did Guilford.
Florida State University spokesman Dennis Schnittker described the email
exchanges as "friendly correspondence between individuals," adding that
collegial communications are a valuable part of school culture.
"Most university presidents would tell you before you can fundraise, you
have to 'friend raise,'" Schnittker said.
Today, the Kochs' friendship with Florida State University appears stronger
than ever.
An email written in September 2014 by Jesse Colvin, Florida State
University's College of Social Sciences and Public Policy development
director, indicates the Charles Koch Foundation is committed to funding the
work of economic department doctoral students "during 2015-2016 and in
subsequent years."
A series of other meetings and conversations between Hardin, from the
Charles Koch Foundation, and Florida State University officials followed,
documents indicate.
In November 2014, Florida State University officials huddled in the office
of newly installed university President John Thrasher for a meeting entitled
"Koch briefing." Schnittker, the university spokesman, said the meeting was
an "opportunity for our new president to be briefed by university staff
about a gift agreement that obviously preceded his tenure." Hardin of the
Charles Koch Foundation was not present, Schnittker said.
Meanwhile, when officials at the Florida State University Project on
Accountable Justice went hunting for funding, the Charles Koch Foundation
factored into their strategy.
The Koch brothers, after all, were telegraphing their intent to make
criminal justice reform a personal priority, reasoning that
"overcriminalization," like overregulation of industry, is resulting in more
Americans enjoying fewer economic freedoms.
Not everyone at the Florida State University Project on Accountable Justice
appeared thrilled at pursuing Koch cash.
"I know you really hate them, but we really need to send them some stuff,"
then-Chairman Allison DeFoor wrote Executive Director Deborrah Brodsky late
last year. "They have money. We don't."
Reached separately by phone last week, DeFoor, an unabashed conservative,
and Brodsky, a Canadian whose politics point more leftward, both laughed off
the exchange as comedic banter between longtime colleagues.
But they confirmed they had pursued the Charles Koch Foundation. It hasn't
yet funded the project but did provide the organization "strategic support,"
including co-hosting a forum on criminal justice.
DeFoor would conclude, following presentations in Washington, D.C., to both
the Charles Koch Foundation and the conservative American Legislative
Exchange Council, that Koch interest in issues the project researches "is
sincere, potentially aggressive and deep."
As a small, three-year-old "research- and evidence-based" program, the
Florida State University Project on Accountable Justice will gladly take
money from most anyone along the ideological spectrum who's dedicated to its
study of and work on criminal justice system reforms, Brodsky said. She
counts liberal lions such as the American Civil Liberties Union, Southern
Poverty Law Center and Human Rights Watch as partners.
The Charles Koch Foundation executives declined to be interviewed
individually. Trice Jacobson, a foundation spokesperson, instead provided a
statement that she said "captures what we all hope to share for this piece."
"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," the statement read. "Our giving has expanded to
support new research and programs on critical issues ranging from criminal
justice reform to corporate welfare."
In a separate statement of its "academic giving principles," the Charles
Koch Foundation asserts that it is "committed to advancing a marketplace of
ideas and supporting a 'Republic of Science' where scholarship is free, open
and subject to rigorous and honest intellectual challenge."
It also notes that scholars and students "who are free to teach, learn,
research, speak, critique and receive support for their work without
interference" are in the "best position to discover the advances that will
help improve well-being."
George Mason, aka Koch U
Nowhere is expanded Koch involvement in higher education more evident than
at George Mason University, which receives more funding from the Kochs than
any other school.
The large, diverse public school in northern Virginia, about 20 miles from
the White House, today houses and lends its name to what's effectively
Charles Koch's personal academic workshop. The Charles Koch Foundation in
2013 donated more than $14.4 million to George Mason University and the
research centers it hosts. That's on top of tens of millions in Koch dollars
that George Mason University and the affiliated research centers have
collectively received in recent years.
Charles Koch himself is a George Mason University fixture. He's the
recipient of an honorary doctorate in science from the university, which
boasts a student population of more than 33,700. He is a director of the
university-based Mercatus Center - Mercatus means "market" in Latin - that
Charles Koch Foundation Vice President Ryan Stowers described at the 2014
Koch gathering in California as "critical" to advancing policy priorities.
Koch also enjoys the company of several current and former George Mason
University affiliates who play multiple roles across the Koch brothers'
sprawling educational, corporate and political network.
Chief among them is Gentry, who presided over the Koch's closed-door higher
education workshop last year.
Gentry possesses unique knowledge about the interconnectivity of the Koch's
various interests and operations because he embodies its reach. He's a
Charles Koch Foundation vice president and a key fundraiser for the Kochs'
political action arm. He's a former vice president of both the Mercatus
Center and the Institute for Humane Studies at George Mason University. And
today, he's even Eastern vice chairman of the Republican Party of Virginia.
Brian Hooks, now president of the Charles Koch Foundation, is another key
Koch network player.
Hooks served as the Mercatus Center's executive director and chief operating
officer from 2005 until 2014 and remains a Mercatus Center board member. The
year Hooks took over, the Mercatus Center posted $4.9 million in total
revenue, according to tax filings. The year he left, it posted nearly $20.7
million.
"Our job is to make sure that we've got a strategy for our work to have a
disproportionate impact," Hooks said at the Kochs' conference in 2014,
noting that the Mercatus Center is the "largest collection" of "free market
faculty" at any university in the world. "These guys are producing research
that groups in this network can rely on to advance economic freedom every
single day."
Scholarly research performed by academics at Koch-funded schools and
programs is indeed sometimes used by Koch-backed nonprofit organizations
that, in turn, overtly advocate for political candidates or causes.
For instance, to support assertions made in a recent, 67-page policy paper,
Koch-supported American Encore regularly cites and quotes Mercatus Center
research and mentions the center nearly a dozen times.
Among the academic work American Encore's paper highlights: a 2014 Mercatus
Center study by Keith Hall, a senior research fellow who had previously
served as commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and a 2014
commentary about a federal regulations tracking and measurement tool by
Patrick A. McLaughlin, another senior research fellow.
"Yet another study has confirmed what we already knew - states with lower
taxes do better," read an article by the Kochs' flagship nonprofit,
Americans for Prosperity, about a study published July 7 by the Mercatus
Center. "Overall, the rankings provide more evidence that economic freedom
works, and bigger government means bigger trouble."
And the 60 Plus Association, a retiree-focused nonprofit that's benefited
from tens of millions of dollars of the Koch brothers' money over the years,
for a time tapped Walter Williams, a George Mason University economics
professor, syndicated columnist and Rush Limbaugh Show fill-in host, as a
member of its "truth squad." His mission: to "battle" against Democrats on
Social Security and Medicare programs.
Congress Takes Notice
Congress is also paying more attention to the Mercatus Center, which from
1999 to 2008 was mentioned by name 32 times in either the Congressional
Record or congressional committee reports. Since 2009, it's been mentioned
93 times, often in reference to Mercatus Center faculty who were testifying
before Congress.
This year, Congress even cited Mercatus Center research in the text of
budget bills. House Concurrent Resolution 27 and Senate Concurrent
Resolution 11 note that a Mercatus Center study "estimates that Obamacare
will reduce employment by up to 3 percent, or about 4 million full-time
equivalent workers."
Mercatus Center Vice President Carrie Conko, while declining to address
critics' "ad hominem attacks" of Charles Koch, stressed the institution's
work is the product of hard work and high standards - not the whims of some
patron puppet master.
"As a university research center, our scholarship is independent and
subjected to rigorous peer review," Conko said. "Our researchers are
interested in understanding what shapes societies and economies and that
covers a spectrum of research from the history of economic thought to the
application of economics to questions of public policy."
Conko also noted that the Mercatus Center abides by a strong conflict of
interest and research independence policy, which she described as "stronger
than those of most found with typical academic centers or departments."
Mercatus Center officials note that the center isn't part of George Mason
University the same way as, say, its chemistry or psychology departments.
Instead, it's organized as a stand-alone nonprofit, and as such, George
Mason University isn't directly responsible for it.
The Mercatus Center doesn't receive direct funding from George Mason
University, Conko said.
But George Mason University and its students do receive millions of dollars
in annual financial benefit from the Mercatus Center, according to federal
tax filings.
That alone is a major incentive for a public university in Virginia, where
state funding of higher education is dwindling, to host a privately funded
operation on its campus - today, a fairly common practice among public
schools.
The Mercatus Center spent $3.64 million during that time to "support
graduate students at George Mason University" by "training future scholars
and decision-makers to advance and apply a research agenda for understanding
institutions and change," according to a tax filing.
The Mercatus Center helped fund $1.82 million worth of communication efforts
that included promoting its research and ideas "to the media and opinion
shapers."
And it made a $10,000 grant to the Atlas Economic Research Foundation, which
operates a "global network of more than 400 free market organizations." They
include several Koch-backed nonprofit groups such as Americans for
Prosperity, the American Legislative Exchange Council and Americans for Tax
Reform.
McAuliffe Mum?
The Mason-Mercatus-Koch nexus may seem like rich fodder for a Democrat such
as Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, whose national party brethren makes
demonizing the Koch brothers a central strategy of their electoral and
fundraising agenda.
McAuliffe's own political committee, Common Good VA, bashed the "ultra
right wing Koch Brothers" in an email earlier this month, accusing them of
working against "expanding health care for all" and "ensuring a living
wage."
But McAuliffe - the outspoken former chairman of both the Democratic
National Committee and Hillary Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign -
declined Center for Public Integrity requests to discuss George Mason
University's relationship with the Koch brothers.
George Mason University's top undergraduate leader, Student Body President
Khushboo Bhatia, also declined comment.
University spokesman Michael Sandler explained that George Mason is among
the nation's most diverse campuses, and "this notion of diversity and
inclusion that is so central to our mission applies to our donors, as well."
Sandler said the university appreciates the Charles Koch Foundation's
donations, as well as those from thousands of other donors.
"While we are grateful for all of the gifts we receive, we value academic
freedom above all else," Sandler said. "This freedom allows our faculty and
researchers to ask questions and make discoveries that others wouldn't
otherwise pursue, and we will not compromise that freedom for anything or
anyone."
Jennifer Victor, a George Mason University politics professor who
specializes in how individuals and groups influence government, is
skeptical.
George Mason University's marriage to an ideologically motivated donor with
a policy agenda to achieve "raises some eyebrows," Victor said. "I don't
really see what Mason gets from them, and I don't think the situation is
healthy or consistent with the university's teaching mission."
No Comment on Koch Funding
Some college officials such as Sandler are willing to discuss the financial
support their schools receive from Koch-run private foundations, with many
emphasizing that gifts from donors, whether liberal or conservative, don't
affect coursework or the manner in which students learn. They also note that
their schools receive hundreds, and sometimes thousands of contributions
each year from individuals, private foundations and the like.
But it's not uncommon for other school officials to button up.
Take Victor Nakas, a spokesman for The Catholic University of America in
Washington, D.C.
Posed a series of questions about the $215,000 the university received in
2013 from the Charles Koch Foundation, he emailed a pair of dated press
releases announcing grants.
"We will be unable to provide you with more than links to these
announcements," he said.
Follow-up messages went unreturned.
Michael Schoenfeld, the vice president for public affairs and government
relations at Duke University, declined to say how the school used the
$37,000 it recently received from the Charles Koch Foundation.
"As a rule, we do not comment on individual donors or contributions without
the donor's permission," he explained.
Officials at Oklahoma State University likewise offered no details about how
the school used the $69,000 the Charles Koch Foundation recently gave it.
Why the silence?
An email exchange between two Florida State University officials, obtained
by the Center for Public Integrity, offers a measure of explanation.
In it, the officials indicate deep concern about the potential effects of
releasing more information about the school's moneyed donors in response to
activist demands.
"[R]equiring donors to disclose more than they already do will likely result
in fewer gifts and smaller gifts, and it will impose an additional
administrative hurdle for the university," wrote Thomas W. Jennings, vice
president for university advancement, to David Coburn, Florida State
University chief of staff.
Revealing donor gift agreements, even for donors who have not requested
anonymity, might "have a negative effect on FSU's relationships with many of
its donors, who don't want that kind of attention," Jennings continued.
The University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill received $115,000 from the
Charles Koch Foundation in 2013, one of nearly 100 schools that year to
receive a five-figure contribution from a Koch foundation.
But that's information not easily accessed by students. Whether by design,
happenstance or ignorance, "most individuals don't know where any of the
university's funds come from," University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
Student Body President Houston Summers said.
University spokesman Jim Gregory confirmed the school received $110,000 for
the Charles Koch Visiting Scholars Program in UNC-Chapel Hill's Philosophy,
Politics and Economics Program, conducted in collaboration with Duke
University. Donors are allowed to remain anonymous, if they choose.
However, some universities are facing blowback over scant information about
school donors from increasingly organized anti-Koch groups and activists.
The umbrella group UnKoch My Campus, for one, has staged protests, demanded
meetings with administrators and launched chapters at George Mason
University and Florida State University, among others. The organization
accuses the Kochs and their allies of undermining issues many students care
about, such as environmental protection, workers' rights, healthcare
expansion and public education.
Its immediate goal, beyond convincing colleges to de-Koch themselves?
"Transparency, because students should have the capability to be more aware
of who's funding their school and their education, and where funding might
conflict with student interests," said Kalin Jordan, an UnKoch My Campus
organizer. "The universities - most don't do a good job of informing
students at all."
Said Colin Nackerman, a student activist at George Mason University: "You
should know, if you're going into a classroom, that $30 million is going
into your school from someone who wants you to think a certain way."
Largely silent in the past, the Charles Koch Foundation has begun to push
back at such dissenters.
"They don't want students and scholars to expand their educational
horizons," Hardin, the foundation's university relations director, wrote in
a May 26 Wall Street Journal op-ed. "Rather than engage in a vigorous and
civil debate about the merits of different ideas, they seek to prevent those
with which they disagree from ever being heard."
Liberals Give Big, Too
If George Mason University is Charles Koch's academic playground, Bard
College is that of Democratic bankroller George Soros, often viewed as the
Koch brothers' pre-eminent liberal foil.
The tiny New York liberal arts school nestled along the Hudson River is
renowned for both scholarship and hippy-dippyness. It received more than
$11.2 million from Soros' private foundation in 2013 - part of a $60
million, multiyear commitment.
But for Soros, himself a multibillionaire with wealth comparable to the
Kochs, his contributions to Bard College aren't generally earmarked for core
academics or domestic political considerations.
Instead, Soros' money mainly helps fund Bard College's Center for Civic
Engagement, which houses a broad portfolio of both U.S. and overseas
programs aimed at "advancing the ideals of an innovative, hands-on liberal
arts education through a myriad of opportunities across the globe."
This tracks with Soros' broader tack on educational giving: The vast
majority of his tens of millions of dollars in education-related
contributions fund foreign schools and programs, particularly in Eastern
Europe and the Middle East. (Soros lived his early life in Hungary, where as
a Jew, he survived Nazi occupation before emigrating.)
Among the U.S. schools Soros does aid, many of his most sizable grants are
earmarked for programs with international goals, such as $500,000 to Harvard
University funding a project on economic growth in Albania, and $159,834 to
The George Washington University in Washington, D.C., to "develop effective
and influential public policy leaders in Central Asia."
Soros' foundation even gave George Mason University more than $22,500 - not
to fund economics programs, but to organize meetings in Mexico and Peru
about conflict reconciliation.
"As a general rule," Soros said in 2011, "I do not support higher education
in the United States."
Soros does make exceptions.
An avowed advocate of campaign finance reform, Soros has used his private
foundations to fund certain domestic college initiatives squarely rooted in
American politics and elections.
One Soros foundation, for example, gave New York City's Fordham University
$200,000 in 2013 to study the "role of money in democratic process."
The money is part of a $1 million, multi-year grant to determine how
disclosure of campaign money influences voters - an awfully political
endeavor by any measure.
But school officials say the research they conduct is free of outside
influence and subject to the highest academic and legal reviews and
standards.
"None of this work is 'political' per se in terms of any ideological
dimensions . it is all strictly nonpartisan," said Costas Panagopoulos,
director of Fordham's Center for Electoral Politics and Democracy, who is
leading the program.
Penn State University's economics department in 2013 benefited from $150,000
in Soros money to help build a research center focused in part on
"interactions between new media and society."
And the Ohio State University Research Foundation received $50,000 to
conduct a research project aimed at better understanding the role
independent expenditures play in federal elections and "how those
expenditures influence the legislative process."
Bard College officials do hear their share of criticism for taking a massive
amount of money from Soros' private foundation, said Jonathan Becker, the
school's vice president for academic affairs and director for civic
engagement.
But, similar to some of the schools that accept Koch money, the school's
tenuous budget situation means that it'd take funding from just about anyone
so long as the transaction was legal and wasn't intended to fund an
initiative "antithetical to our vision," Becker said.
That vision, in the words of its student handbook, imagines a "supportive,
intellectually rich environment where students can engage themselves to the
fullest while respecting all members of the community."
So what if the Charles Koch Foundation wanted to donate $1 million to Bard
College?
Or $10 million?
"We would say 'thank you,' and we would cash the check quickly," Becker
said.
Other Conservative Donors
Unlike the Kochs, Soros and many other prominent political donors, both left
and right of center, have charitable agendas that largely diverge from their
domestic political agendas.
Robert McNair, the Houston Texans owner who this year alone has spread $3
million among five super PACs backing several Republican presidential
candidates, used his private foundation to give millions of dollars to
various medical schools and a scholarship program for doctors performing
research in areas such as breast cancer, juvenile diabetes and neuroscience.
Sheldon and Miriam Adelson, two other top-shelf Republican donors whom 2016
presidential candidates have endlessly wooed, directed almost all of their
university-related private foundation funding - millions of it in 2013 - to
medical research.
A private foundation co-run by former World Wrestling Entertainment honcho
Linda McMahon, a major GOP donor who herself twice unsuccessfully ran
self-funded U.S. Senate campaigns, gave its most sizable, six-figure
contributions to substance abuse help group Liberation Programs.
Then there's one late Republican superdonor whose philanthropy has been at
war with his political giving: Harold Simmons.
The Texas businessman bankrolled his eponymous foundation, but his liberal
daughters run it. In doing so, they saw to it that Planned Parenthood - the
ultimate Republican scourge of late - received more than $300,000 of his
money during 2013. It's also given hundreds of thousands of dollars to
Public Campaign, a Washington, D.C.-based money-in-politics reform group
also supported in 2013 with $300,000 from a private foundation led by
liberal hedge fund manager Jonathan Soros, son of George Soros.
Money the Harold Simmons Foundation did give to colleges in 2013 mostly went
toward infrastructure and general operating expenses.
University of Dayton Says "No Thanks"
While more schools than ever are engaging with Koch foundations, at least
one school - the University of Dayton in Ohio - has seemingly soured on Koch
cash, which it has previously accepted in five-figure amounts.
Jay Riestenberg, a research analyst at campaign reform advocacy group Common
Cause and University of Dayton alumnus, earlier this year emailed the
school's Interim Provost Paul H. Benson, asking him if the University of
Dayton is still funded by, or seeking new funding from Koch foundations.
Attached was an op-ed Riestenberg has written for the school's student
newspaper. In it, he explains that his education at the small Catholic
school inspired him to care about other people, protect the environment and
fight for social justice.
"UD accepting Koch funding is in clear violation of the institution's
Catholic Marianist values," Riestenberg wrote in the April 28 email.
Benson replied later that night. His answer: The University of Dayton no
longer accepts Koch cash, and it will not in the future - despite the
efforts of Koch-backed organizations.
"There have been instances in which other foundations who are funded in part
by the Koch Brothers have tried to interest us in establishing centers at
UD," Benson wrote Riestenberg. "We have not supported those proposals,
precisely for the reasons you cite."
Benson declined an interview request by the Center for Public Integrity.
In a statement, University of Dayton spokeswoman Cilla Shindell explained
that the school did reject a recent proposal from a "foundation that is in
part funded by the Koch family" because it "would have been structured in a
way that would limit oversight by the university in such areas as curriculum
and faculty hiring."
She did not name the foundation.
Kochs' Higher Education Funding Strategy
This previously unpublished recording of Koch aides discussing education
funding strategy with potential donors was provided to the Center for Public
Integrity by The Undercurrent, an online program produced by liberal
political activists.
Key Kochworld Lieutenants
Several associates of Charles and David Koch span multiple aspects of the
billionaire brothers' political, educational, charitable and industrial
juggernauts. Among them:
Richard Fink is among Charles Koch's top aides. Fink is the co-founder of
George Mason University's Mercatus Center and a current member of the
center's board of directors. Fink has also served on the boards of several
of Charles and David Koch's private foundations. That includes serving as
president of the Charles Koch Foundation until 2014 and as a director for
the Fred C. & Mary R. Koch Foundation alongside Charles and David Koch
themselves. Fink likewise sits on the board of directors for Americans for
Prosperity, a "social welfare" nonprofit that doesn't reveal its donors but
spent more than $33.5 million during the 2012 election advocating against
President Barack Obama's re-election. Fink also works as chairman and chief
executive of Koch Companies Public Sector, LLC, the legal, government and
public affairs wing of Koch Industries Inc.
Kevin Gentry is vice president of the Charles Koch Foundation. He is also a
board member for Koch-backed nonprofit Freedom Partners and vice president
for special projects/development at Koch Companies Public Sector LLC. Gentry
previously served as vice president of the Koch-funded Institute for Humane
Studies and the Mercatus Center at George Mason University and as volunteer
faculty at the Leadership Institute, which "identifies, recruits, trains and
places conservatives in government, politics and the media." In party
politics, Gentry serves as eastern vice chairman for the Republican Party of
Virginia.
Brian Hooks is president of the Charles Koch Foundation, having been hired
in 2014. Hooks is also a Mercatus Center board member and served as the
Mercatus Center's executive director and chief operating officer from 2005
until 2014.
Wayne Gable is a board member of the Koch-funded Freedom Partners, itself a
nonprofit that has largely provided seed money to other Koch-backed
political nonprofits over many years. He served from 1999 to 2000 as
president of the Charles Koch Foundation as well. Gable is also a former
managing director of international government affairs at Koch Industries
Inc. and a onetime registered federal lobbyist for the company. He received
a doctoral degree in economics from George Mason University.
Nancy Pfotenhauer served from 2010 to 2014 on George Mason University's
Board of Visitors - a 16-member university governing body appointed by
Virginia's governor that "exercises its authority principally in
policy-making and oversight." She received a master's degree in economics
from George Mason University. Pfotenhauer today serves on Americans for
Prosperity's board of directors and runs a communications firm. She is also
a former director of the Independent Women's Forum, which in 2010 received
$350,000 from the Koch-controlled (and now defunct) Claude R. Lambe
Charitable Foundation, according to IRS tax documents. She once led Koch
Industries Inc.'s Washington, D.C., office.
Dale Gibbens is the human resources vice president for Koch Industries Inc.
He is a board member for Koch-backed nonprofit Freedom Partners, described
by Politico in 2013 as "the Koch brothers secret bank." Since then, Freedom
Partners' sister super PAC spent about $23.4 million advocating for
Republican congressional candidates and against Democratic candidates. In
2014, Gibbens also helped fund the Koch Center for Leadership and Ethics at
Emporia State University in Kansas, which is focused on "free market
principles, leadership and ethical theories."
Patrick Hedger is policy director for American Encore, a heavily Koch-backed
political nonprofit previously known as the Center to Protect Patient
Rights. He is a recent graduate of George Mason University, where he is also
pursuing a master's degree in public policy.
A version of this story was co-published with The Atlantic.
This piece was reprinted by Truthout with permission or license. It may not
be reproduced in any form without permission or license from the source.
DAVE LEVINTHAL
Dave Levinthal joined the Center for Public Integrity in 2013 to help lead
its Consider the Source project investigating the influence of money in
politics. For two years prior to joining the Center, Dave reported on
campaign finance and lobbying issues for Politico and co-wrote the daily
Politico Influence column. He also edited OpenSecrets.org from 2009 to 2011,
where he led coverage that won the Online News Association's top honors in
2011 for best topical reporting and blogging and was a finalist the same
year for the Scripps Howard Foundation's Distinguished Service to the First
Amendment award. From 2003 to 2009, Dave worked for The Dallas Morning News,
primarily covering Dallas City Hall also reporting on national elections and
aviation security. From 2000 to 2002, he covered the New Hampshire
Statehouse for The Eagle-Tribune of Lawrence, Mass. A native of Buffalo,
N.Y., Dave graduated from Syracuse University with degrees in newspaper
journalism and political philosophy and edited The Daily Orange. He is also
a two-time winner (2007 and 2010) of Canada's Northern Lights Award for his
travel writing about the arctic.
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Koch Brothers' Higher Education Investments Advance Political Goals
Sunday, 08 November 2015 00:00 By Dave Levinthal, The Center for Public
Integrity | News Analysis
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. Charles Koch appears in a video promoting a partnership between
Koch Industries, the Charles Koch Foundation and the United Negro College
Fund. (Screenshot: Koch Industries)
. Last year, a top lieutenant of Charles and David Koch's vast network
of philanthropic institutions laid bare the billionaire brothers' strategy
to evangelize their gospel of economic freedom.
Political success, Kevin Gentry told a crowd of elite supporters attending
the annual Koch confab in Dana Point, Calif., begins with reaching young
minds in college lecture halls, thereby preparing bright,
libertarian-leaning students to one day occupy the halls of political power.
"The [Koch] network is fully integrated, so it's not just work at the
universities with the students, but it's also building state-based
capabilities and election capabilities and integrating this talent
pipeline," he said.
"So you can see how this is useful to each other over time," he continued.
"No one else has this infrastructure. We're very excited about doing it."
The Center for Public Integrity obtained a previously unpublished audio
recording of the meeting, which focused on the Kochs' higher education
funding strategy, from liberal activists who produce The Undercurrent, an
online video program.
Higher education has become a top Koch priority in recent years. And funding
- as well as pushback against it - is increasing.
During 2013, a pair of private charitable foundations Charles Koch leads and
personally bankrolls combined to spread more than $19.3 million across 210
college campuses in 46 states and the District of Columbia, according to a
Center for Public Integrity analysis of Internal Revenue Service tax
filings.
That represents a significant increase from the $12.7 million the Koch
foundations distributed among 163 college campuses in 41 states and the
District of Columbia during 2012. It's also exponentially more than what the
Koch foundations together spent directly on higher education a decade ago.
The Center for Public Integrity reviewed hundreds of private documents,
emails and audio recordings that, along with interviews with more than 75
college officials, professors, students and others, indicate the Koch
brothers' spending on higher education is now a critical part of their
broader campaign to infuse politics and government with free-market
principles.
Spreading the Free-Market Gospel
It is no secret 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 their billions leading private oil,
chemical and manufacturing conglomerate Koch Industries Inc., were dominant
forces in recent election cycles. They're now poised to rank among the most
influential Americans shaping next year's presidential and congressional
vote.
Much less well known: their activities on college campuses.
The Kochs are among many wealthy political patrons who give money to
education, including conservative Robert McNair, independent Michael
Bloomberg and liberal billionaire financier George Soros. (The Center for
Public Integrity receives funding from the Open Society Foundations, which
Soros funds. A complete list of Center for Public Integrity funders is found
here.)
The Kochs' giving, however, has a laser-like focus on a specific,
politically relevant discipline - free market economics - unmatched by other
political mega-donors. Koch officials routinely cultivate relationships with
professors and deans and fund specific courses of economic study pitched by
them.
Detractors argue the Koch brothers' college-focused money, by helping
advance a philosophy of economic liberty, is eroding a fundamental aspect of
higher education: academic freedom.
But some conservatives and libertarians consider the Kochs' investments in
higher education a much-needed counterweight to an American higher education
system that historically tilts leftward.
And they explain the Kochs' decision to influence education most certainly
does not spring, as many liberal partisans would like the body politic to
believe, from the compulsions of steel-souled industrialists more concerned
about fortune and power than, say, protecting the environment or helping the
poor.
"Since the '60s, they've been imbued with the sense that the world would be
a better place if the country instituted their libertarian values," author
Brian Doherty said of the brothers.
"For Charles, his time horizon, as he gets a little older, has become a
little shorter. He has lots of money, and he wants to see action in his
lifetime," continued Doherty, the author of "Radicals for Capitalism: A
Freewheeling History of the Modern American Libertarian Movement" and senior
editor at Reason who's interviewed both Koch brothers.
"I'm not doing anything I'm ashamed of," Charles Koch himself told Forbes
last month. "You've gotta change the hearts and minds of the people to
understand what really makes society fairer and what's going to change their
lives. And it's not more of this government control."
The Kochs educational giving, while rarefied, isn't the nation's largest.
With his wife, Betty, Gordon Moore, the co-founder of Intel, this year
pledged $100 million to the California Institute of Technology - and allowed
the school to spend it as it sees fit.
Koch defenders also note, accurately, that the pair has donated generously
to educational causes not necessarily animated by political considerations:
the Smithsonian, public television, media organizations, music scholarships,
medical research and a variety of others. David Koch, for his part, has
poured hundreds of millions of dollars into medicine and the arts over the
years.
But it's clear where there is an ideological bent to their giving: Tax
returns, as well as emails and private documents exchanged among Charles
Koch Foundation officers and various college and university officials,
indicate the foundation's commitment to funding academics is deep and
growing. Koch education funding, which is almost singularly focused on
economics, also sometimes comes with certain strings attached.
Also see: "How Colleges Use Koch Money"
Recruiting New Believers
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 - and influence over information officials at the public university
disseminated about the Charles Koch Foundation.
It sought, for one, the names and email addresses - "preferably not ending
in .edu" - of any student who participated in a Koch-sponsored class,
reading group, club or fellowship. The stated purpose: "to notify students
of opportunities" through both the Charles Koch Foundation and the Institute
for Humane Studies at George Mason University.
And the foundation certainly did not want the College of Charleston to speak
to news reporters about its Koch-funded programs without prior consent from
the Charles Koch Foundation.
"[I]f you intend to engage in press releases or other media outreach
associated with programmatic activities, please notify us in advance,"
Charles Koch Foundation officials Charlie Ruger and Derek Johnson wrote
Peter Calcagno, director of the College of Charleston's Center for Public
Choice and Market Process. "We consider media outreach a collaborative
effort and would appreciate the opportunity to both assist and advise."
Donors are often sent unpublished press releases about programs they fund
"as a courtesy so that they will know the contents," school spokesman Mike
Robertson said.
At Florida State University, one of the nation's top educational recipients
of Koch foundation money this decade - about $1.38 million from 2010 through
2013 - a similar request is more direct.
"FSU will allow [the Charles Koch Foundation] to review and approve the text
of any proposed publicity which includes mention of CKF," reads a memorandum
of understanding signed between the university and foundation in 2013.
Such provisions aren't new at Florida State University: the Center for
Public Integrity last year reported that the Charles Koch Foundation first
attempted in 2007 to place specific conditions on its financial support of
the school, when it initially considered providing funding.
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.
Relationships between certain school officials and the Charles Koch
Foundation personnel nevertheless blossomed. One gatekeeper to Charles
Koch's riches practically became family - if not by blood, then money.
"Thought you might want to see our 'nephew!'" wrote executive assistant
Tonja Guilford to David Rasmussen, her boss and dean of Florida State
University's College of Social Sciences and Public Policy.
Attached to the October 2014 email were photos of this "nephew" - the
tow-headed toddler son of John C. Hardin, director of university relations
for the Charles Koch Foundation.
Hardin and his family had previously visited with Florida State University
officials in Tallahassee. Talk of future get-togethers, and more pictures of
Hardin's son in a Superman costume, aloft in his father's arms, would
follow.
"I was just thinking this morning I needed new pictures to post outside my
door," Guilford fawned to Hardin in an email. "He is just way too cute in
his superman costume. He's my 'little' superman - I just love him!"
Friend-Raising
Rasmussen, who routinely pursues private funding on behalf of his
department, declined interview requests from the Center for Public
Integrity, as did Guilford.
Florida State University spokesman Dennis Schnittker described the email
exchanges as "friendly correspondence between individuals," adding that
collegial communications are a valuable part of school culture.
"Most university presidents would tell you before you can fundraise, you
have to 'friend raise,'" Schnittker said.
Today, the Kochs' friendship with Florida State University appears stronger
than ever.
An email written in September 2014 by Jesse Colvin, Florida State
University's College of Social Sciences and Public Policy development
director, indicates the Charles Koch Foundation is committed to funding the
work of economic department doctoral students "during 2015-2016 and in
subsequent years."
A series of other meetings and conversations between Hardin, from the
Charles Koch Foundation, and Florida State University officials followed,
documents indicate.
In November 2014, Florida State University officials huddled in the office
of newly installed university President John Thrasher for a meeting entitled
"Koch briefing." Schnittker, the university spokesman, said the meeting was
an "opportunity for our new president to be briefed by university staff
about a gift agreement that obviously preceded his tenure." Hardin of the
Charles Koch Foundation was not present, Schnittker said.
Meanwhile, when officials at the Florida State University Project on
Accountable Justice went hunting for funding, the Charles Koch Foundation
factored into their strategy.
The Koch brothers, after all, were telegraphing their intent to make
criminal justice reform a personal priority, reasoning that
"overcriminalization," like overregulation of industry, is resulting in more
Americans enjoying fewer economic freedoms.
Not everyone at the Florida State University Project on Accountable Justice
appeared thrilled at pursuing Koch cash.
"I know you really hate them, but we really need to send them some stuff,"
then-Chairman Allison DeFoor wrote Executive Director Deborrah Brodsky late
last year. "They have money. We don't."
Reached separately by phone last week, DeFoor, an unabashed conservative,
and Brodsky, a Canadian whose politics point more leftward, both laughed off
the exchange as comedic banter between longtime colleagues.
But they confirmed they had pursued the Charles Koch Foundation. It hasn't
yet funded the project but did provide the organization "strategic support,"
including co-hosting a forum on criminal justice.
DeFoor would conclude, following presentations in Washington, D.C., to both
the Charles Koch Foundation and the conservative American Legislative
Exchange Council, that Koch interest in issues the project researches "is
sincere, potentially aggressive and deep."
As a small, three-year-old "research- and evidence-based" program, the
Florida State University Project on Accountable Justice will gladly take
money from most anyone along the ideological spectrum who's dedicated to its
study of and work on criminal justice system reforms, Brodsky said. She
counts liberal lions such as the American Civil Liberties Union, Southern
Poverty Law Center and Human Rights Watch as partners.
The Charles Koch Foundation executives declined to be interviewed
individually. Trice Jacobson, a foundation spokesperson, instead provided a
statement that she said "captures what we all hope to share for this piece."
"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," the statement read. "Our giving has expanded to
support new research and programs on critical issues ranging from criminal
justice reform to corporate welfare."
In a separate statement of its "academic giving principles," the Charles
Koch Foundation asserts that it is "committed to advancing a marketplace of
ideas and supporting a 'Republic of Science' where scholarship is free, open
and subject to rigorous and honest intellectual challenge."
It also notes that scholars and students "who are free to teach, learn,
research, speak, critique and receive support for their work without
interference" are in the "best position to discover the advances that will
help improve well-being."
George Mason, aka Koch U
Nowhere is expanded Koch involvement in higher education more evident than
at George Mason University, which receives more funding from the Kochs than
any other school.
The large, diverse public school in northern Virginia, about 20 miles from
the White House, today houses and lends its name to what's effectively
Charles Koch's personal academic workshop. The Charles Koch Foundation in
2013 donated more than $14.4 million to George Mason University and the
research centers it hosts. That's on top of tens of millions in Koch dollars
that George Mason University and the affiliated research centers have
collectively received in recent years.
Charles Koch himself is a George Mason University fixture. He's the
recipient of an honorary doctorate in science from the university, which
boasts a student population of more than 33,700. He is a director of the
university-based Mercatus Center - Mercatus means "market" in Latin - that
Charles Koch Foundation Vice President Ryan Stowers described at the 2014
Koch gathering in California as "critical" to advancing policy priorities.
Koch also enjoys the company of several current and former George Mason
University affiliates who play multiple roles across the Koch brothers'
sprawling educational, corporate and political network.
Chief among them is Gentry, who presided over the Koch's closed-door higher
education workshop last year.
Gentry possesses unique knowledge about the interconnectivity of the Koch's
various interests and operations because he embodies its reach. He's a
Charles Koch Foundation vice president and a key fundraiser for the Kochs'
political action arm. He's a former vice president of both the Mercatus
Center and the Institute for Humane Studies at George Mason University. And
today, he's even Eastern vice chairman of the Republican Party of Virginia.
Brian Hooks, now president of the Charles Koch Foundation, is another key
Koch network player.
Hooks served as the Mercatus Center's executive director and chief operating
officer from 2005 until 2014 and remains a Mercatus Center board member. The
year Hooks took over, the Mercatus Center posted $4.9 million in total
revenue, according to tax filings. The year he left, it posted nearly $20.7
million.
"Our job is to make sure that we've got a strategy for our work to have a
disproportionate impact," Hooks said at the Kochs' conference in 2014,
noting that the Mercatus Center is the "largest collection" of "free market
faculty" at any university in the world. "These guys are producing research
that groups in this network can rely on to advance economic freedom every
single day."
Scholarly research performed by academics at Koch-funded schools and
programs is indeed sometimes used by Koch-backed nonprofit organizations
that, in turn, overtly advocate for political candidates or causes.
For instance, to support assertions made in a recent, 67-page policy paper,
Koch-supported American Encore regularly cites and quotes Mercatus Center
research and mentions the center nearly a dozen times.
Among the academic work American Encore's paper highlights: a 2014 Mercatus
Center study by Keith Hall, a senior research fellow who had previously
served as commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and a 2014
commentary about a federal regulations tracking and measurement tool by
Patrick A. McLaughlin, another senior research fellow.
"Yet another study has confirmed what we already knew - states with lower
taxes do better," read an article by the Kochs' flagship nonprofit,
Americans for Prosperity, about a study published July 7 by the Mercatus
Center. "Overall, the rankings provide more evidence that economic freedom
works, and bigger government means bigger trouble."
And the 60 Plus Association, a retiree-focused nonprofit that's benefited
from tens of millions of dollars of the Koch brothers' money over the years,
for a time tapped Walter Williams, a George Mason University economics
professor, syndicated columnist and Rush Limbaugh Show fill-in host, as a
member of its "truth squad." His mission: to "battle" against Democrats on
Social Security and Medicare programs.
Congress Takes Notice
Congress is also paying more attention to the Mercatus Center, which from
1999 to 2008 was mentioned by name 32 times in either the Congressional
Record or congressional committee reports. Since 2009, it's been mentioned
93 times, often in reference to Mercatus Center faculty who were testifying
before Congress.
This year, Congress even cited Mercatus Center research in the text of
budget bills. House Concurrent Resolution 27 and Senate Concurrent
Resolution 11 note that a Mercatus Center study "estimates that Obamacare
will reduce employment by up to 3 percent, or about 4 million full-time
equivalent workers."
Mercatus Center Vice President Carrie Conko, while declining to address
critics' "ad hominem attacks" of Charles Koch, stressed the institution's
work is the product of hard work and high standards - not the whims of some
patron puppet master.
"As a university research center, our scholarship is independent and
subjected to rigorous peer review," Conko said. "Our researchers are
interested in understanding what shapes societies and economies and that
covers a spectrum of research from the history of economic thought to the
application of economics to questions of public policy."
Conko also noted that the Mercatus Center abides by a strong conflict of
interest and research independence policy, which she described as "stronger
than those of most found with typical academic centers or departments."
Mercatus Center officials note that the center isn't part of George Mason
University the same way as, say, its chemistry or psychology departments.
Instead, it's organized as a stand-alone nonprofit, and as such, George
Mason University isn't directly responsible for it.
The Mercatus Center doesn't receive direct funding from George Mason
University, Conko said.
But George Mason University and its students do receive millions of dollars
in annual financial benefit from the Mercatus Center, according to federal
tax filings.
That alone is a major incentive for a public university in Virginia, where
state funding of higher education is dwindling, to host a privately funded
operation on its campus - today, a fairly common practice among public
schools.
The Mercatus Center spent $3.64 million during that time to "support
graduate students at George Mason University" by "training future scholars
and decision-makers to advance and apply a research agenda for understanding
institutions and change," according to a tax filing.
The Mercatus Center helped fund $1.82 million worth of communication efforts
that included promoting its research and ideas "to the media and opinion
shapers."
And it made a $10,000 grant to the Atlas Economic Research Foundation, which
operates a "global network of more than 400 free market organizations." They
include several Koch-backed nonprofit groups such as Americans for
Prosperity, the American Legislative Exchange Council and Americans for Tax
Reform.
McAuliffe Mum?
The Mason-Mercatus-Koch nexus may seem like rich fodder for a Democrat such
as Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, whose national party brethren makes
demonizing the Koch brothers a central strategy of their electoral and
fundraising agenda.
McAuliffe's own political committee, Common Good VA, bashed the "ultra right
wing Koch Brothers" in an email earlier this month, accusing them of working
against "expanding health care for all" and "ensuring a living wage."
But McAuliffe - the outspoken former chairman of both the Democratic
National Committee and Hillary Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign -
declined Center for Public Integrity requests to discuss George Mason
University's relationship with the Koch brothers.
George Mason University's top undergraduate leader, Student Body President
Khushboo Bhatia, also declined comment.
University spokesman Michael Sandler explained that George Mason is among
the nation's most diverse campuses, and "this notion of diversity and
inclusion that is so central to our mission applies to our donors, as well."
Sandler said the university appreciates the Charles Koch Foundation's
donations, as well as those from thousands of other donors.
"While we are grateful for all of the gifts we receive, we value academic
freedom above all else," Sandler said. "This freedom allows our faculty and
researchers to ask questions and make discoveries that others wouldn't
otherwise pursue, and we will not compromise that freedom for anything or
anyone."
Jennifer Victor, a George Mason University politics professor who
specializes in how individuals and groups influence government, is
skeptical.
George Mason University's marriage to an ideologically motivated donor with
a policy agenda to achieve "raises some eyebrows," Victor said. "I don't
really see what Mason gets from them, and I don't think the situation is
healthy or consistent with the university's teaching mission."
No Comment on Koch Funding
Some college officials such as Sandler are willing to discuss the financial
support their schools receive from Koch-run private foundations, with many
emphasizing that gifts from donors, whether liberal or conservative, don't
affect coursework or the manner in which students learn. They also note that
their schools receive hundreds, and sometimes thousands of contributions
each year from individuals, private foundations and the like.
But it's not uncommon for other school officials to button up.
Take Victor Nakas, a spokesman for The Catholic University of America in
Washington, D.C.
Posed a series of questions about the $215,000 the university received in
2013 from the Charles Koch Foundation, he emailed a pair of dated press
releases announcing grants.
"We will be unable to provide you with more than links to these
announcements," he said.
Follow-up messages went unreturned.
Michael Schoenfeld, the vice president for public affairs and government
relations at Duke University, declined to say how the school used the
$37,000 it recently received from the Charles Koch Foundation.
"As a rule, we do not comment on individual donors or contributions without
the donor's permission," he explained.
Officials at Oklahoma State University likewise offered no details about how
the school used the $69,000 the Charles Koch Foundation recently gave it.
Why the silence?
An email exchange between two Florida State University officials, obtained
by the Center for Public Integrity, offers a measure of explanation.
In it, the officials indicate deep concern about the potential effects of
releasing more information about the school's moneyed donors in response to
activist demands.
"[R]equiring donors to disclose more than they already do will likely result
in fewer gifts and smaller gifts, and it will impose an additional
administrative hurdle for the university," wrote Thomas W. Jennings, vice
president for university advancement, to David Coburn, Florida State
University chief of staff.
Revealing donor gift agreements, even for donors who have not requested
anonymity, might "have a negative effect on FSU's relationships with many of
its donors, who don't want that kind of attention," Jennings continued.
The University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill received $115,000 from the
Charles Koch Foundation in 2013, one of nearly 100 schools that year to
receive a five-figure contribution from a Koch foundation.
But that's information not easily accessed by students. Whether by design,
happenstance or ignorance, "most individuals don't know where any of the
university's funds come from," University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
Student Body President Houston Summers said.
University spokesman Jim Gregory confirmed the school received $110,000 for
the Charles Koch Visiting Scholars Program in UNC-Chapel Hill's Philosophy,
Politics and Economics Program, conducted in collaboration with Duke
University. Donors are allowed to remain anonymous, if they choose.
However, some universities are facing blowback over scant information about
school donors from increasingly organized anti-Koch groups and activists.
The umbrella group UnKoch My Campus, for one, has staged protests, demanded
meetings with administrators and launched chapters at George Mason
University and Florida State University, among others. The organization
accuses the Kochs and their allies of undermining issues many students care
about, such as environmental protection, workers' rights, healthcare
expansion and public education.
Its immediate goal, beyond convincing colleges to de-Koch themselves?
"Transparency, because students should have the capability to be more aware
of who's funding their school and their education, and where funding might
conflict with student interests," said Kalin Jordan, an UnKoch My Campus
organizer. "The universities - most don't do a good job of informing
students at all."
Said Colin Nackerman, a student activist at George Mason University: "You
should know, if you're going into a classroom, that $30 million is going
into your school from someone who wants you to think a certain way."
Largely silent in the past, the Charles Koch Foundation has begun to push
back at such dissenters.
"They don't want students and scholars to expand their educational
horizons," Hardin, the foundation's university relations director, wrote in
a May 26 Wall Street Journal op-ed. "Rather than engage in a vigorous and
civil debate about the merits of different ideas, they seek to prevent those
with which they disagree from ever being heard."
Liberals Give Big, Too
If George Mason University is Charles Koch's academic playground, Bard
College is that of Democratic bankroller George Soros, often viewed as the
Koch brothers' pre-eminent liberal foil.
The tiny New York liberal arts school nestled along the Hudson River is
renowned for both scholarship and hippy-dippyness. It received more than
$11.2 million from Soros' private foundation in 2013 - part of a $60
million, multiyear commitment.
But for Soros, himself a multibillionaire with wealth comparable to the
Kochs, his contributions to Bard College aren't generally earmarked for core
academics or domestic political considerations.
Instead, Soros' money mainly helps fund Bard College's Center for Civic
Engagement, which houses a broad portfolio of both U.S. and overseas
programs aimed at "advancing the ideals of an innovative, hands-on liberal
arts education through a myriad of opportunities across the globe."
This tracks with Soros' broader tack on educational giving: The vast
majority of his tens of millions of dollars in education-related
contributions fund foreign schools and programs, particularly in Eastern
Europe and the Middle East. (Soros lived his early life in Hungary, where as
a Jew, he survived Nazi occupation before emigrating.)
Among the U.S. schools Soros does aid, many of his most sizable grants are
earmarked for programs with international goals, such as $500,000 to Harvard
University funding a project on economic growth in Albania, and $159,834 to
The George Washington University in Washington, D.C., to "develop effective
and influential public policy leaders in Central Asia."
Soros' foundation even gave George Mason University more than $22,500 - not
to fund economics programs, but to organize meetings in Mexico and Peru
about conflict reconciliation.
"As a general rule," Soros said in 2011, "I do not support higher education
in the United States."
Soros does make exceptions.
An avowed advocate of campaign finance reform, Soros has used his private
foundations to fund certain domestic college initiatives squarely rooted in
American politics and elections.
One Soros foundation, for example, gave New York City's Fordham University
$200,000 in 2013 to study the "role of money in democratic process."
The money is part of a $1 million, multi-year grant to determine how
disclosure of campaign money influences voters - an awfully political
endeavor by any measure.
But school officials say the research they conduct is free of outside
influence and subject to the highest academic and legal reviews and
standards.
"None of this work is 'political' per se in terms of any ideological
dimensions . it is all strictly nonpartisan," said Costas Panagopoulos,
director of Fordham's Center for Electoral Politics and Democracy, who is
leading the program.
Penn State University's economics department in 2013 benefited from $150,000
in Soros money to help build a research center focused in part on
"interactions between new media and society."
And the Ohio State University Research Foundation received $50,000 to
conduct a research project aimed at better understanding the role
independent expenditures play in federal elections and "how those
expenditures influence the legislative process."
Bard College officials do hear their share of criticism for taking a massive
amount of money from Soros' private foundation, said Jonathan Becker, the
school's vice president for academic affairs and director for civic
engagement.
But, similar to some of the schools that accept Koch money, the school's
tenuous budget situation means that it'd take funding from just about anyone
so long as the transaction was legal and wasn't intended to fund an
initiative "antithetical to our vision," Becker said.
That vision, in the words of its student handbook, imagines a "supportive,
intellectually rich environment where students can engage themselves to the
fullest while respecting all members of the community."
So what if the Charles Koch Foundation wanted to donate $1 million to Bard
College?
Or $10 million?
"We would say 'thank you,' and we would cash the check quickly," Becker
said.
Other Conservative Donors
Unlike the Kochs, Soros and many other prominent political donors, both left
and right of center, have charitable agendas that largely diverge from their
domestic political agendas.
Robert McNair, the Houston Texans owner who this year alone has spread $3
million among five super PACs backing several Republican presidential
candidates, used his private foundation to give millions of dollars to
various medical schools and a scholarship program for doctors performing
research in areas such as breast cancer, juvenile diabetes and neuroscience.
Sheldon and Miriam Adelson, two other top-shelf Republican donors whom 2016
presidential candidates have endlessly wooed, directed almost all of their
university-related private foundation funding - millions of it in 2013 - to
medical research.
A private foundation co-run by former World Wrestling Entertainment honcho
Linda McMahon, a major GOP donor who herself twice unsuccessfully ran
self-funded U.S. Senate campaigns, gave its most sizable, six-figure
contributions to substance abuse help group Liberation Programs.
Then there's one late Republican superdonor whose philanthropy has been at
war with his political giving: Harold Simmons.
The Texas businessman bankrolled his eponymous foundation, but his liberal
daughters run it. In doing so, they saw to it that Planned Parenthood - the
ultimate Republican scourge of late - received more than $300,000 of his
money during 2013. It's also given hundreds of thousands of dollars to
Public Campaign, a Washington, D.C.-based money-in-politics reform group
also supported in 2013 with $300,000 from a private foundation led by
liberal hedge fund manager Jonathan Soros, son of George Soros.
Money the Harold Simmons Foundation did give to colleges in 2013 mostly went
toward infrastructure and general operating expenses.
University of Dayton Says "No Thanks"
While more schools than ever are engaging with Koch foundations, at least
one school - the University of Dayton in Ohio - has seemingly soured on Koch
cash, which it has previously accepted in five-figure amounts.
Jay Riestenberg, a research analyst at campaign reform advocacy group Common
Cause and University of Dayton alumnus, earlier this year emailed the
school's Interim Provost Paul H. Benson, asking him if the University of
Dayton is still funded by, or seeking new funding from Koch foundations.
Attached was an op-ed Riestenberg has written for the school's student
newspaper. In it, he explains that his education at the small Catholic
school inspired him to care about other people, protect the environment and
fight for social justice.
"UD accepting Koch funding is in clear violation of the institution's
Catholic Marianist values," Riestenberg wrote in the April 28 email.
Benson replied later that night. His answer: The University of Dayton no
longer accepts Koch cash, and it will not in the future - despite the
efforts of Koch-backed organizations.
"There have been instances in which other foundations who are funded in part
by the Koch Brothers have tried to interest us in establishing centers at
UD," Benson wrote Riestenberg. "We have not supported those proposals,
precisely for the reasons you cite."
Benson declined an interview request by the Center for Public Integrity.
In a statement, University of Dayton spokeswoman Cilla Shindell explained
that the school did reject a recent proposal from a "foundation that is in
part funded by the Koch family" because it "would have been structured in a
way that would limit oversight by the university in such areas as curriculum
and faculty hiring."
She did not name the foundation.
Kochs' Higher Education Funding Strategy
This previously unpublished recording of Koch aides discussing education
funding strategy with potential donors was provided to the Center for Public
Integrity by The Undercurrent, an online program produced by liberal
political activists.
Key Kochworld Lieutenants
Several associates of Charles and David Koch span multiple aspects of the
billionaire brothers' political, educational, charitable and industrial
juggernauts. Among them:
Richard Fink is among Charles Koch's top aides. Fink is the co-founder of
George Mason University's Mercatus Center and a current member of the
center's board of directors. Fink has also served on the boards of several
of Charles and David Koch's private foundations. That includes serving as
president of the Charles Koch Foundation until 2014 and as a director for
the Fred C. & Mary R. Koch Foundation alongside Charles and David Koch
themselves. Fink likewise sits on the board of directors for Americans for
Prosperity, a "social welfare" nonprofit that doesn't reveal its donors but
spent more than $33.5 million during the 2012 election advocating against
President Barack Obama's re-election. Fink also works as chairman and chief
executive of Koch Companies Public Sector, LLC, the legal, government and
public affairs wing of Koch Industries Inc.
Kevin Gentry is vice president of the Charles Koch Foundation. He is also a
board member for Koch-backed nonprofit Freedom Partners and vice president
for special projects/development at Koch Companies Public Sector LLC. Gentry
previously served as vice president of the Koch-funded Institute for Humane
Studies and the Mercatus Center at George Mason University and as volunteer
faculty at the Leadership Institute, which "identifies, recruits, trains and
places conservatives in government, politics and the media." In party
politics, Gentry serves as eastern vice chairman for the Republican Party of
Virginia.
Brian Hooks is president of the Charles Koch Foundation, having been hired
in 2014. Hooks is also a Mercatus Center board member and served as the
Mercatus Center's executive director and chief operating officer from 2005
until 2014.
Wayne Gable is a board member of the Koch-funded Freedom Partners, itself a
nonprofit that has largely provided seed money to other Koch-backed
political nonprofits over many years. He served from 1999 to 2000 as
president of the Charles Koch Foundation as well. Gable is also a former
managing director of international government affairs at Koch Industries
Inc. and a onetime registered federal lobbyist for the company. He received
a doctoral degree in economics from George Mason University.
Nancy Pfotenhauer served from 2010 to 2014 on George Mason University's
Board of Visitors - a 16-member university governing body appointed by
Virginia's governor that "exercises its authority principally in
policy-making and oversight." She received a master's degree in economics
from George Mason University. Pfotenhauer today serves on Americans for
Prosperity's board of directors and runs a communications firm. She is also
a former director of the Independent Women's Forum, which in 2010 received
$350,000 from the Koch-controlled (and now defunct) Claude R. Lambe
Charitable Foundation, according to IRS tax documents. She once led Koch
Industries Inc.'s Washington, D.C., office.
Dale Gibbens is the human resources vice president for Koch Industries Inc.
He is a board member for Koch-backed nonprofit Freedom Partners, described
by Politico in 2013 as "the Koch brothers secret bank." Since then, Freedom
Partners' sister super PAC spent about $23.4 million advocating for
Republican congressional candidates and against Democratic candidates. In
2014, Gibbens also helped fund the Koch Center for Leadership and Ethics at
Emporia State University in Kansas, which is focused on "free market
principles, leadership and ethical theories."
Patrick Hedger is policy director for American Encore, a heavily Koch-backed
political nonprofit previously known as the Center to Protect Patient
Rights. He is a recent graduate of George Mason University, where he is also
pursuing a master's degree in public policy.
A version of this story was co-published with The Atlantic.
This piece was reprinted by Truthout with permission or license. It may not
be reproduced in any form without permission or license from the source.
Dave Levinthal
Dave Levinthal joined the Center for Public Integrity in 2013 to help lead
its Consider the Source project investigating the influence of money in
politics. For two years prior to joining the Center, Dave reported on
campaign finance and lobbying issues for Politico and co-wrote the daily
Politico Influence column. He also edited OpenSecrets.org from 2009 to 2011,
where he led coverage that won the Online News Association's top honors in
2011 for best topical reporting and blogging and was a finalist the same
year for the Scripps Howard Foundation's Distinguished Service to the First
Amendment award. From 2003 to 2009, Dave worked for The Dallas Morning News,
primarily covering Dallas City Hall also reporting on national elections and
aviation security. From 2000 to 2002, he covered the New Hampshire
Statehouse for The Eagle-Tribune of Lawrence, Mass. A native of Buffalo,
N.Y., Dave graduated from Syracuse University with degrees in newspaper
journalism and political philosophy and edited The Daily Orange. He is also
a two-time winner (2007 and 2010) of Canada's Northern Lights Award for his
travel writing about the arctic.
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