INTERACTIVE DATABASE: Koch Foundation Funding to Colleges and Universities
Key findings:
- Professors in Koch-funded departments are involved in climate science denial despite lack of scientific credentials
- Political groups hosted by Koch-funded universities are used to attack clean energy policies and pollution regulations
Part 2 of blog series taken from our full report: Koch Pollution on Campus Academic Freedom Under Assault From Charles Koch’s $50 million Campaign to Infiltrate Higher Education
We Sold Our Souls for Koch Control
Covering a deal struck between Koch and Arizona State University, LA Times reporter Michael Hiltzik asked, “When universities sell their souls, why do they have to sell so cheaply?” Koch’s sudden invasion of higher education has been widely protested and continues to escalate.
Brooklyn City University of New York (CUNY) flat-out rejected Koch’s offer for a multi-million dollar grant this year, to the ire of a professor negotiating with the Koch foundation.
At Florida State University (FSU), students and professors have exposed Koch influence since 2011, protesting how Charles Koch’s staff hold undue control over professor hires. The conversation at FSU remains heated, with students declaring that FSU’s revised contract with Koch is no better than its old contract, still conceding informal hiring control and other functions to Koch.
As FSU searches for a new president, one nominee in particular has drawn criticism from students and faculty for his lack of academic background, connections to Koch-funded groups and politicians, and his role as a Florida Senator in passing new legislation exempting university donor communications from public record requests.
At Suffolk University, an alumna has petitioned the university to address concerns over Koch money on campus. Suffolk University’s administration has been under fire for continuing allow Koch to run political campaigns out of the Beacon Hill Institute (BHI) in Suffolk’s name, on Suffolk’s campus.
George Mason University students have recently called upon their administration to make transparent their financial arrangements with Koch and other corporate interests (p. 12). GMU president ngel Cabrera put up a response that didn’t address transparency concerns outlined by a student group calling itself “Transparent GMU.” On a recent Reddit AMA with President Cabrera, students cited a Politico Magazine article that implicated GMU as a major part of Koch’s political apparatus and pushed for answers. President Cabrera agreed to meet with students, though there is no indication that has yet happened.
The United Negro College Fund has become central in the Koch university debate after UNCF took $25 million from Charles Koch. The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) withdrew its partnership with UNCF after learning UNCF president Michael Lomax personally attended Koch’s political strategy & fundraising meeting in June, 2014. Michael Lomax mocked his critics at the Koch donor summit, according to audio leaked to the press.
Students, faculty, alumni and activists alike have also spoken out at Catholic University, George Washington University, and University of Arizona.
Climate Science Denial on Koch-Funded Campuses
Of primary concern to Greenpeace is evidence of professors in Koch-funded university departments denying the science of climate change. Some universities that are threatened to be staffed or controlled by known financiers of climate “skepticism” or play roles in Koch’s political campaigns against climate policies.
FSU – Climate Denial Econ 101
Professor James Gwartney at Florida State University co-authored a textbook called Economics: Private and Public Choice. This “widely used” textbook has been criticized for six years straight by Ph.D economist Yoram Bauman for misrepresenting the science of climate change – a field well outside of the authors’ credentialed experience. Since 2010, when Dr. Bauman began ranking economics textbooks that include climate change back, Gwartney et al. have not only ranked dead-last every time, but have made little progress in updating the inaccurate and false assertions made in their widely-used textbook.
Three authors of Economics: Private and Public Choice have overlapping connections to Koch-funded universities and political groups.
- James Gwartney works in the Koch-funded Florida State University economics department, and is on the Research Advisory Council of the Koch-funded James Madison Institute, itself a member of the Koch-funded State Policy Network. Gwartney is an adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute, founded by Charles Koch and currently directed by David Koch and other close Koch associates. Gwartney received the Adam Smith award and Distinguished Scholar Award from the Association for Private Enterprise Education (APEE), which organizes professors at schools receiving Koch grants. Gwartney has served as president, vice president and executive board member of APEE. APEE itself receives money from Charles Koch. James Gwartney has authored at least 11 editions of “Economic Freedom of the World” for the Fraser Institute and the Cato Institute, a project funded by Koch. “Economic freedom” is written into the “Objectives” of Koch’s contract with Clemson University, as noted above.
- Richard Stroup teaches at North Carolina State University, which helps the Charles Koch Institute place “summer fellows” into paid internships at Koch-funded political groups. Stroup is a director of the Institute for Energy Research (IER), itself founded by Charles Koch, and is a fellow at the Cato Institute, also founded by Charles Koch. Along with Charles Koch, Dr. Stroup is a member of the Mont Pelerin Society. Stroup authored “Free Market Environmentalism” for the anti-environmental Property and Environment Research Council (PERC), yet another organization financed by Koch foundations, which created a Free Market Environmentalism college course syllabus.
- Russell Sobel now teaches at Citadel College Military College of South Carolina, after abruptly leaving West Virginia University in 2012, a top Koch-Funded school where Sobel was hand-chosen by the Charles Koch Foundation to direct the programs it funds. Sobel earned his economics Ph.D at FSU under Randy Holocombe. Sobel is a visiting fellow at the South Carolina Policy Council, part of the Koch-funded State Policy Network, and is affiliated with the Mercatus Center, the Cato Institute, the Fraser Institute, Tax Foundation, and Koch-funded hubs at Troy University in Alabama and Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia. Sobel served on the executive board of the Koch-funded consortium of professors, the Association of Private Enterprise Education, and received an award from APEE in 2007. Sobel has argued that mine safety regulations make coal miners less safe.
Ironically, the 2008 and 2013 contracts between Koch and FSU were signed by former president Eric Barron, a climate scientist who is now president of Penn State University, which has received $74,500 from Charles Koch since 2008.
Climate Disbelief Ground Zero – George Mason University Economics
Perhaps most prominently, George Mason University’s involvement in undermining environmental priorities is well-known, undermining other GMU divisions, like the respected Center for Climate Change Communication.
GMU Professor Walter Williams has publicly rejected the science of climate change. After employing some popular disproved remarks to encourage doubt over scientists’ findings, Williams stated in June, 2014, “Only idiocy would conclude that mankinds capacity to change the climate is more powerful than the forces of nature.” Williams is a Rush Limbaugh stand-in host and charter board member of Americans for Prosperity. Williams mentored longtime Koch political operative Nancy Pfotenhauer, herself a former Koch Industries lobbyist her served as AFP’s first president, who until recently served as treasurer on GMU’s Board of Visitors.
The Mercatus Center at GMU was founded by Charles Koch and its ongoing president Richard Fink. Fink established Mercatus from a predecessor organization at Rutgers University, and was followed by GMU economics professor Tyler Cowen. Mercatus has history of opposing attempts to control greenhouse gas emissions responsible for global warming, an inherent consequence of Koch Industries’ oil and gas business divisions. Mercatus has continued this work into 2014, opposing attempts by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to limit carbon pollution at coal plants.
The Institute for Humane Studies, also at GMU and chaired by Charles Koch, was called “a haven for climate change deniers,” by Mother Jones, recruiting students to work for Koch-funded organizations that have battled climate change policy, clean energy development incentives and laws & regulations in the crosshairs of Koch Industries.
Suffolk University – The Backbone of Attacks on Clean Energy & Climate Policy
The Beacon Hill Institute (BHI) at Suffolk University serves as a factory of economic policy studies for the Koch-funded State Policy Network. BHI’s research methodology (STAMP model) has been widely dismissed by economists and journalists citing BHI’s liberal use of “mathematical adjustment.” BHI has published anti renewable energy studies in states across the country, a tactic to interfere with addressing climate change, not to mention competition with fossil fuel companies like Koch.
The Suffolk Journal confirmed that over $750,000 in Koch donations have gone to BHI. The Journal interviewed BHI director David Tuerck, who admitted to Koch funding but denied any influence over research.
But shortly after, The Guardian published a grant proposal from BHI to undermine the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a cap-and-trade program practiced by 10 northeast states that the Koch brothers actively oppose. The grant proposal proved that the BHI study’s outcome preceded the research: “Success will take the form of media recognition, dissemination to stakeholders, and legislative activity that will pare back or repeal RGGI.” BHI’s grant request was sent to the Searle Freedom Trust, one of several corporate foundations that bundles grants in coordination with Koch.
In response, Suffolk denounced the actions of the Beacon Hill Institute, but has allowed BHI to use its campus office to continue attacks on state clean energy laws around the country and undermine the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.
A Pope of Climate Denial Looms – UNC Chapel Hill
University of North Carolina schools Chapel Hill and Greensboro are on the Charles Koch payroll, and receive money from one of Koch’s closest political allies, Art Pope. Pope, himself a major funder of groups that deny climate change, has leveraged his political groups, his personal donations and his former position as North Carolina’s budget director to bring the university system to its knees.
Pope was a charter director of Koch’s Americans for Prosperity, which runs a pledge to commit politicians against addressing global warming. Pope previously served on the board of AFP’s predecessor, Citizens for a Sound Economy, another group created by the Kochs. He attends Charles Koch’s regular donor summits and gives over $1 million to Koch’s political campaigns, as acknowledged by Charles Koch himself.
Groups founded by Art Pope, including the Civitas Institute and the John William Pope Center for Higher Education Policy (named after Pope’s father, a former UNC Chapel Hill trustee), have been critical of the UNC system, lining up behind Pope’s consistent pressure to weaken UNC’s budget. The president of the Pope Center for Higher Education, Jane Shaw, is married to Richard Stroup, the NC State professor who co-authored the economics textbook misrepresenting climate science (see above).
Freshly departed from his appointed position as NC Gov. Pat McCrory’s budget director, Art Pope is now rumored to be seeking presidency at the entire University of North Carolina system, composed of 17 schools.
Climate Denier Slips into University of Colorado, Boulder & Pepperdine University
In the spring of 2014, Steven F. Hayward taught “Free Market Environmentalism” at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Hayward has no credentials as a scientist nor economist, and has a long history of involvement anti-environmental campaigns for fossil fuel interests like Koch and ExxonMobil. “Free Market Environmentalism” is a concept promoted by the Koch-funded Property and Environment Research Center, of which Hayward is a board member.
Steven Hayward’s appointment as Boulder’s “Visiting Scholar in Conservative Thought” was controversial after he published offensive commentary on the LGBTQ community that was protested by students and faculty.
The University of Colorado Foundation, located in Boulder, has received $58,000 from Charles Koch since 2009. Now, Hayward is teaching at Pepperdine University in Malibou, CA, which has received $49,650 from Koch since 2009.
Steven F. Hayward has been one of the most outspoken deniers of climate change science for over a decade. He wears numerous hats among Koch-funded groups opposing environmental policies, and oversees tens of millions of dollars as a board member of organizations that coordinate funding with Koch foundations or launder Koch money to front groups.
Hayward controls tens of millions of dollars flowing to SPN & climate denier groups every year:
- On the board of Searle Freedom Trust as a grant adviser
- On the board of Donors Capital Fund as a treasurer. Koch foundations have funneled $8.865 million to Donors Capital Fund and sister group Donors Trust since 2005, which in turn sends money to groups in the State Policy Network, including groups employing Steven Hayward. Searle Freedom Trust also gives money to Donors Trust. Searle president Kim Dennis is on the boards of Donors Trust and Donors Capital Fund, and is on George Mason University’s board of visitors.
Hayward’s various positions before U-Colorado and Pepperdine:
- On the board of Koch-funded Institute for Energy Research
- IER was founded by Charles Koch in TX, and former Koch Industries lobbyist Tom Pyle is IER’s president.
- On the board of CFACT (Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow)
- More than half of CFACT’s budget is through Donors Trust & Donors Capital Fund, where Hayward is the treasurer
- Former FK Weyerhauser fellow at Koch-funded American Enterprise Institute
- At AEI, Hayward offered $10,000 to scientists willing to deny climate change in published essays
- Former fellow at Koch-funded Pacific Research Institute
- Former senior fellow at Koch-funded Heritage Foundation
- On the board of Koch-funded Property and Environment Research Center (PERC)
- SYLLABUS: “Free Market Environmentalism,” written in 2002 by PERC‘s J. Bishop Grewell, containing readings from numerous people at Koch-funded organizations.
Other financial ties back to Koch:
- Hayward is a former fellow of the Mont Pelerin Society, a secretive international society that pushes Austrian Economic perspective around the globe. Charles Koch is a member of Mont Pelerin and was a personal friend of MP’s Austrian co-founder, Friederich Hayek.
- Contributes to Powerline Blog, run by a lawyer who has represented Koch Industries
- Contributor to Reason Magazine.
- David Koch as a trustee of the Reason Foundation, which regularly gets large Koch grants
- Contributor to Koch-funded National Review
- National Review editor Ramesh Ponnuru has attended Koch meetings. NR contributors regularly publish misleading information on climate change for NR’s Planet Gore blog
- Contributor to Koch-funded Daily Caller
- Daily Caller was founded by Carson Daily, a Cato Institute scholar, with money from billionaire Foster Friess, who coordinates political spending with the Koch brothers at their bi-annual summits.
- Contributor to Weekly Standard
- WS is owned by oil/gas billionaire Phil Anschutz, who attends KochWorld meetings. WS’ Michael Goldfarb was contracted to do public relations for Koch
Steven Hayward and climate science denial:
- Author of Mere Environmentalism: A Biblical Perspective on Humans and the Natural World
- Hayward created and starred in the climate denial documentary “An Inconvenient Truth….or Convenient Fiction?“
- He’s a guest in the other denier documentaries like Resisting The Green Dragon (by the Christian anti-environmental group the Cornwall Alliance, almost entirely funded by Donors Trust/Capital Fund through the James Partnership)
- More on Hayward from DeSmogBlog, ExxonSecrets, SourceWatch
