Academic Freedom? Not if You’re a Conservative…or a Koch
by Capitol ConfidentialFlorida State University (FSU) President Barron recently sent a letter to the Faculty Senate Committee asking the body to review the Koch Foundation agreement with the university and its implementation. The final report, which was released last week, went beyond the scope of Barron’s request and examined other donors’ agreements and decisions made by the economics department at FSU. The results of that analysis have been repeatedly confused with the details of the memorandum of understanding with the Koch Foundation as proven by an article published by Inside Higher Ed. This post serves to clarify some of the mistakes being reported by various outlets.
Inside Higher Ed claims that FSU created a new economics course as part of the agreement with the Koch Foundation called “Market Ethics: The Vices, Virtues, and Values of Capitalism” and that this course featured the work of Ayn Rand.
In fact, this course was not part of the agreement between FSU and the Koch Foundation, and the work of Ayn Rand is never referenced in the memorandum of understanding between the two parties.
Moreover, the agreement gives the program director the opportunity to design a course, but leaves it entirely up to the professor to choose which program will best help their students learn. In the event that the professor does decide to design a course, the agreement states the course must “follow current department procedures for approving and new course offering.”
This freedom of course design was even acknowledged by professors at other institutions including University of Wisconsin-Madison professor, Richard Avramenko and Beloit College professor Joshua Hall, who told The Capital Times they had “complete freedom” to design their programs and that the Koch Foundation “had no input on the substance of the programming.”
Inside Higher Ed also reported that “faculty panels doing the reviews were never told that the course was part of a pledge to a donor” and that the faculty review committee was “concerned that this new course moved through the approval process without a clear indication that it was donor-prescribed with donor-prescribed content.”
As stated above, this course was not part of the agreement. Additionally, any courses the Koch Foundation supported had to be approved through “current department procedures for approving and new course offering.” Failure to correctly approve a course falls on the responsibility of FSU faculty, not the Koch Foundation.
Lastly, Inside Higher Ed reported that the agreement provides for the hiring of a non-tenure track instructor to help with “gateway” introductory courses and that “the staffing and supervision of these gateway courses for all majors are being ceded to a subset of the department that may not be representative of the diverse intellectual interests in the department.”
Put simply, course staffing decisions at FSU are made entirely by departments and are not a part of the agreement. The agreement allows for the hire of a non-tenure track professor “to teach economics courses, primarily at the undergraduate level.” The department’s selection of the program director and the non-tenure track professor to teach another introductory undergraduate economics course was decided entirely by FSU faculty and at no point did the Koch Foundation become involved in this process.
Its appears that the original accusations against the Koch Foundation stating they had harmed academic integrity and obtained hire/fire authority over faculty were proven false, so new allegations were created in their place also lacking any factually basis.
This story has very little to do about the agreement the Koch Foundation reached with FSU and everything to do with the fact that some will never accept their involvement in higher education.
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76 Comments
How about a comparative study?
"Ethics: The Vices, Virtues, and Values of Capitalism vs Socialism or any form of Collectivism”
At some point conservatives need to start voting with their dollars. Why not starve out communism and CAIR – they are attempting to starve us out.
We need to support conservative candidates for school boards and spend, but spend wisely, until it hurts.
"…the original accusations against the Koch Foundation stating they had harmed academic integrity"???
Academic integrity???
Where does that exist?
I wonder how many articles like this one will it take to,………
get enough $30,000+ / yr tuition paying parents to start getting involved,…….
in eradicating the type of indoctrination that,…….
this $30,000+ tuition / is paying for.
Hillsdale is the only institution that comes to my mind.
It is perfectly legitimate for a donor to request that a particular topic be taught. Sometimes schools accept the money to teach those classes and sometimes they do not. Our school is considering teaching free market economics and morality of capitalism; however, this is because we have faculty who WANT to teach these topics. Yes, we actually have enough faculty who are conservative to teach these classes. (compared to my prior institution where all the conservatives in faculty and staff could literally fit inside a phonebooth)
It's hard to imagine that most US schools, including the Ivy Leagues were originally Christian Theology Centers, Bible Schools, and such.
Then the pervert progressives got into them and killed them. Satan hates freedom and really hates God. So what better than to inject the yeast of the Pharisees into our so-called "centers of learning" and creating godless soulless morons?
Seems like Inside Higher ED is nothing more than another mouthpiece for the left and deliberately misinterpreted the facts. Or the people doing the review are part of our preceding generations of students who never learned to read or write. I leave the choice to fellow readers.
Less than 10 minutes – I'm impressed! I used to get Imprimus – maybe I should again…
One of my "professors" at the State Institute for Advanced Indoctrination (SIAI) said I was a "crypto-fascist" for suggesting that the concept of "community standards" was valid, and that courts had limited authority to overturn such laws. I forget the "specific test" or whatever it was, but it was set up to make sure there were no standards at all… That "professor" was a Vegan", and so were his children – except when the wife wasn't looking… Kinda tells ya all you need to know about his character and integrity…
Given the ongoing challenges with the mainstream media and academia, conservatives have to do a better job of encouraging their children to pursue these vocations so the voices of reason and sanity can be heard in and from these critical institutions. If we continue to allow liberals to own communication and education, conservatism is doomed.
Have a Koch and a smile?
Too bad they didn't mandate specific course materials – a lot of University students would do well to exposed to some critical thinking…
"Florida State University (FSU) President Barron recently sent a letter to the Faculty Senate Committee asking the body to review the Koch Foundation agreement with the university and its implementation. "
So when the truth comes out that the Koch brothers merely provide money and not the direct course curriculum then what? Will we see the leftist statist's apologize, or dead silence?
I'm sure a little checking around will find all kinds of "progressive" foundations not only donating money for courses but dictating the content of those courses. Hey, haven't a bunch of oil sheiks donated big cash for Middle Eastern studies in US universities?
Also, University of Colorado (yes, in the People's Republic of Boulder) got a donation to endow a chair of Conservative Studies. LOLOLOL! I bet the courses will be something like this: "Capitalism Only Sucks Sometimes"; "How to Make Money via Political Cronyism"; "Community Organizing for Green Corporations". Any other ideas?
So someone tell me, why the libs think the Koch brothers are evil billionaires, but think George Soros is a good billionaire?
I hear crickets.
It'll never happen. But required courses in Womens' Studies and Whitey Did It are ok.
What we need to do most of all is end public education. School boards are a forum for the motivated to push their agenda on taxpayers and their children – we all see how that has worked out…
End "public" "education" and schools will have to compete for students not only on an economic level, but also on reputation.
The poor won't be able to afford it you say? Well, then I suppose they shouldn't have children they can't support, now should they?
You did say "they" were attempting to starve "us" out, correct? Starve out the poor. Make it unattractive to be poor and lazy and stupid – and we will get less of it…
This whole "debt crisis" is because we create poor people and encourage them to breed. Who pays for it? The only people who can: The creative and the productive. If you are creative or productive you do not need a
governmenttaxpayer provided hand out…Humanity is the only living species that intentionally weakens its own gene pool…
Sad to say less and less within our higher institutions of progressive propaganda. Whoops, I meant learning.
UMMM, because Soros is a liberal?
Those are fun questions to ask during the campus tour … and freshmen orientation.
" What kind of family planning services do you have for when my son knocks up some coed ? "
" Do you offer counseling for students suffering political or anti-Christian bigotry ? "
" What is the average rate of grade inflation ? "
That's funny–"Whitey Did It".
Actually Existing Socialism — on more than 3500 American college campuses
Marxists don't Retreat — They Re-Lie
The Koch brothers have supported economic freedom and individual liberty for ALL people for decades. They actually have profound respect for people from all walks of life, unlike the "pillars" of the Left. Soros is the exact opposite,and thinks we are ALL just pawns for him to shuffle around, and yet the Koch's are vilified.
We are lucky they have dedicated so much of their fortune to protect and increase liberty, and from what I know of them, they are very kind, down-to-earth people.
Pfft! You aren't very enlightened, are you? It's Womyn's studies…
And just what do you mean by "Whitey Did It"?
Do you mean: discovered logic and reason? Advanced mathematics? The scientific method? Natural rights? Industrialization? a Republican form of government? "Whitey" has done so many things I think that would have to be a four year course meeting 40 hours a week – year-round… They might have to leave some stuff out even then – like how "Whitey" ended slavery in his own societies, discovered the means to feed the world, eradicated many mortal and disfiguring diseases and broke the bounds of gravity to explore outer space…
Tenured profs are forever passing their lower level classes to nontenured and their assistants. How stupid is this group "Inside Higher Ed"? The people who are funding them need to get some smart people in their little organization. Perhaps high school students on summer break aren't the best people to hire.
So… How many Soros funded courses that teach the glories of totalitarian government, Marxism, how to economically collapse a government, or, how to hate the country you live in?
"Tax Avoidance Through the Strategic Donation of Money to the DNC"
"Bend Over: How to Achieve Peaceful Relations with Union Representatives in the Workplace"
Libs think? That's your error right there… Libs regurgitate…
One of my co-workers went to a rally last night to protest Rep. Joe Walsh (R)-IL. I asked him why. He said "because of his "politics" and he is a TEA Partier." I asked if there was some specific issue involved, and he answered "because of his "politics" and he is a TEA Partier." I dropped it… If I want to listen to a parrot I can go to a pet store and skip the insult of the biological proximity to my own humanity…
Whoa, man, I hope you're reading my sarcasm
. But I do see what you mean!
LOL! A+ for you!
As one of those nontenured profs, I've heard my students say they prefer us lowly worms to the uber-communist egomaniacs with tenure. We're tougher and we give a damn that the students learn something.
Because they think hypocrisy applies only to the unwashed taxpaying masses.
Of course I did! You know you are one of my favs…
I know that what I did was "racist", but sometimes the incontrovertible facts need to see the light of day, no matter how inconvenient they may be…
True. Guess I'm a little touchy because I had to read a stupid book called "Rhetorical Listening: Identification, Gender, Whiteness" for a graduate course this summer. BLEH!
BLEH! is right! Sh!t like that is only one of the reasons I argue that "public" "education" has to go. Give me another year or two with my own education and I could walk into any "Institution of Higher Learning" and embarrass the hell out of so many of these stupid and alleged "professors". A is A. I am an individual with a specific capacity for gaining and integrating knowledge. I have free will and make my own choices – not always the best ones either. If I am smarter than 80% of the people in this world then I also concede that well over a billion are smarter… I pushed back a little when I was a yung'n back in my day at the SIAI, now I could roast most of those dummies… My main 'puter is down for the next week or two (or more – being repaired), or I would give you some quotes of comfort… I am SOOO glad I backed-up all that stuff!
;-p''' 
Those who use it in their careers tend to not invoke it or mention it. Usually it's invoked only when someone is caught breaking the law/doing something else really stupid (i.e. William Cronon at UW-Madison with lobbying against Walker's bill) or when attempting to push something obviously partisan through the system.
It's kind of like the "Academic Race Card" in that regard.
OR the poor, poor, poor professor can have ME walk into their classroom – like I'm doing in 23 days.
I can't wait. – again…
Yo, Koch Bros. Get together with some other wealthy conservatives and OPEN "Capitalism University" – but with a "catchier name" – put it in a "Red State" HEY there's your name – "Red State University" – have a kickass football program and recruit pretty, smart young ladies – give them a tuition discount –
seriously – it'll draw a great student body of young conservatives – make a "detination school" – one that kids will travel cross country to attend.
"Red State University"
Hey, that would also attract communists. Maybe they would learn a thing or two.
Honestly, even though it is a half decent idea, they way you pitch it seems so creepy.
"creepy?" What's creepy about conservatism, football and college? It's kinda like BYU without the Mormanism. Some people might consider BYU "creepy."
"Inside Higher Ed", that's all one needs to know. This publication exists for the explicate purpose of insuring that our education system is used exclusively as a platform for Marxist indoctrination.
Yeah, the stuff sucks. I'm just taking courses for certification updates, so I'm not sweating it. Someday I'll go back for my Ph.D., but I'm doing it just because I want to–my personal mountain to climb. I don't expect it to pay in any way, so no professor will have anything to hold over me. It'll be fun as hell to be a thorn in their socialist sides!
How about "Capitalism and Nazism: Hitler was not a Capitalist."
Ayn Rand called public educators "the comprachicos of the mind" (The New Left: The Anti-Industrial Revolution) She was right.
Quite frankly, I don't see a problem with someone donating a bunch of money to a school and attaching all kinds of strings to it. I wouldn't donate a penny without having that kind of authority unless I was so confident the recipient would do with it what I wanted and they were willing to receive it in fractions so long as they continued to use it appropriately. The school doesn't have to accept it if they don't like the terms.
Nor was he a Christian – despite the best efforts of the Left to defame Christianity in his name. He was a collectivist – no different than Stalin or Mao… Just a slightly different label for the same evil…
Did you get a link from onecornpone and read that one? She LOVES that essay, as do I…
A lousy link, but seems to have the correct content:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/51894820/Ayn-Rand-The-C...
Vote with your wallet and vote with your feet. Now is NOT a good time to start college or to go for an advanced degree. Wait until the tuition bubble bursts and some major house-cleaning has been accomplished before attending.
I think it'd be great.
And if the Koch brothers are keeping an eye on how the funding is spent, then they can make sure that the money isn't wasted on fluff. This would keep the tuition cost within reason so that middle-class students could attend without taking out ruinous student loans.
If they don't take funding from the grabbermint, then they don't have to worry about meeting "diversity" goals or being "politically correct." They can simply hire the best faculty and staff – people who want to get out of the stifling, hard-left and pro-jihadi bureaucracy elsewhere – and admit the best students.
The Koch Foundation can fund my course development and research at any time! I've been a member of curriculum review committees off an on over the years, and I've often wondered how it is that someone who has a PhD in art history or American literature or accounting, etc. gets to "vote" on whether to approve or not approve a new course in the chemistry department.
Not sure if this is sarcasm or not. You know why? It's exactly what needs to happen.
Parents of high school kids are so busy picking "elite" schools for their little darlings and preparing to pay a bundle for it. Yet, the curriculum at most of these schools is in direct contrast to the values they have strived to instill in their kids.
I have wondered why we don't see the creation of more conservative colleges, friendly to Capitalist theories. Rush Limbaugh is always touting Hillsdale College. It sounds like it's exactly what college students need in this country.
Economies depend on the Morality of its partcipants. That's Bible 101. The best Economic System is read in the O.T., primarily Leviticus Ch 25…and many other Chapters, ok.
Coupled with N.T. giving, it's a real winner.
Blessings are given or taken away According to Deuteronomy Ch 28….As these Promises are Conditional…In other words, we do our part, and God Has To Do His Part. He can not Lie, nor break His Promises.
With all the libTARDED LUNACY that our colleges DUMP on their students, the lame stream media feels this is news worthy? Maybe if they were teaching Cloward and Piven with newly higherd LOON professor Ward Churchill, everything would have been okay. God help the poor college kid that actually gets a CONSERVATIVE and REAL education! After all, take a good look at what our libTARDED LOON universities have produced for us and now work at places like goldman sachs. Also know to some of us as a branch of the United States Treasury Department. AND JUST HOW WELL HAS THAT WORKED OUT?
I went to college years ago and my profs were mostly okay. I would have a different kind of fun in college today! My philosophy prof would have loved the run. My husband took a course in engineering where the prof was not fluent enough in English to communicate the coursework.
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona seems to be very conservative and has a large ROTC building with strong enrollment. My kid is attending in the fall and she's an 18-year old diehard conservative that had to fight her way through 3 years of liberal moonbat teachers in her HS.
Embry-Riddle seems like a breath of fresh air.
How about "Hell on Earth: The History of Collectivism."
FSU is a hotbed of screaming liberal eggheads- has been since the 70s. It was once called 'The Berkley of the South".
But there is a way around the liberal bias. Join the Seminole Boosters and donate hundreds of thousands to the FSU Seminoles sports program. Then they will let you do anything you want…teach anything you want, put up a whole damned school of whatever in your own name.. . make a statue of yourself in gold! They REALLY don't care about the school curriculum as long as the FSU Seminoles Win win win!
How do I know? I AM an FSU Alumni.
My hubs had the same problem with a calculus prof. No one could understand her, so she kept calling them "stupid American students."
Nope, but I have the book in paperback from about 1973.
This needs to be required reading for our youth.
Wouldn't matter what you named the course, the faculty and admin would make sure that capitalism is shown to be pure evil.
If all this is true then the Koch brothers need to grow a pair, and demand that their dollars are used to inform students that Social Justice is the Kings Justice with a new name. Otherwise why give any $$$ to further the very thing they are accused daily of trying to subvert?
Money talks and Barbara Streisand walks.
I don't know much about the Koch brothers but I do know they make pigressive lefties cry like babies and get violent. Anyone that can make left wing vermin throw a hissy is OK with me.
I sure would like to be there.
Good grief. His called everyone Joe. Hey you Joe. You girl joe. said he had a sense of humor. Sounds kind of lazy to me.
Stop calling them progressives.
How is it progressive to take us back to 1917?
They're leftists, pure and simple.
If they win the language, the debate is over.
Why should a state be Red? Didn't we just fight and win a cold war against the Reds?
Why are conservatives adopting the enemy's color?
The health and wealth gospel is bunk. Remember, the twelve apostles were poor, sick, jailed, persecuted, and suffering throughout their lives despite doing their part. God did not "bless" them financially. This is because the rules have changed – we are supposed to carry the cross. "If they persecute me, they will persecute you."
We are SUPPOSED to carry the cross.
Tell the Koch brothers this.
"Red State" is a reference to the electoral maps which paint GOP states red and Demoncrats states blue.
I didn't make that up, it goes back several years – one of the TV networks "created it" and it should be red, white and blue for GOP/conservative states and Demoncrats states with red with a yellow star on it.
Well, I was 75% serious. Like private high schools and home schooling becoming more and more prevelant with parents who CARE and/or can afford it – where and what the kids are exposed to in college is the next issue.
I'm a "old guy" middle age college student, I have one {useless} BA, I'm starting a second BA in history with a law school prep minor {I'll take me one year, two semesters} and generally speaking professors {many my age} don't MESS with me.
It's "fun!" ;p
Bravo! sounds like a very sensible plan! Good luck!!!!
Too bad college kids have to be so young! Some good old fashioned common sense would go well with their energy and optimism!
It already exists: Hilldale College (http://www.hillsdale.edu/). Although, I don't think the football team is "kickass", the rest is pretty much true, all private funding.
Oh ya, I have big respect for Hillsdale College, they do a great service – we need to EXPAND that model. I'm saying go big time and field teams and have the entire deal working – like BYU or Notre Dame.
I'm not saying any real conservative made it up.
But since the LSM created this, it is obvious they are telling the truth that Marxists have taken over both political parties, if they can use red for the RINOpublican party.
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