Undeterred by Criticism, Koch Foundation Increases Spending in Higher Education

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Scrutiny of the Charles Koch Foundation’s spending on higher education has increased recently. So has the spending.

A report by the Associated Press on Monday showed that the conservative foundation gave a total of $49 million to more than 250 colleges in 2016, or 47 percent more than it gave in 2015. The report was based on a review of the foundation’s tax records.

John Hardin, the foundation’s director of university relations, told the AP that as the fund’s work became better known, more professors were submitting grant proposals and its relationship with certain colleges was deepening. That has led to more spending.

George Mason University and its affiliated institute received $19 million of the $49 million, the AP reported. Last month the university was forced to acknowledge that some of its past financial agreements with the foundation and other funders were “problematic.”

The agreements, signed between 2003 and 2011, were made public in response to a former student’s open-records request. They showed that the foundation and other George Mason donors had room to influence the selection and work of the professors whose positions they spent millions to support.

Ángel Cabrera, George Mason’s president, said in an email to faculty members that the agreements “fall short of the standards of academic independence I expect any gift to meet.” He announced a review of all of the university’s financial agreements and policies, and said that one still-active agreement would become void.

Some of the agreements in question specified that funding would support a professorship that advances “the understanding, acceptance, and practice of those free-market processes and principles which promote individual freedom, opportunity, and prosperity.” They also said that some members of a selection committee would be named by the Koch Foundation or other funders.

It’s unusual for funders to have any say in who is hired for academic posts, according to officials who work in college and university development. The Koch Foundation said the agreements were old and new agreements lack the clauses that caused alarm.

The Koch Foundation has been invoked as a kind of boogeyman by student activists on many campuses under the banner “UnKoch My Campus.” Some college leaders have pushed back, saying that blanket condemnation of grants from the foundation actually work against academic freedom.

Nell Gluckman writes about faculty issues and other topics in higher education. You can follow her on Twitter @nellgluckman, or email her at nell.gluckman@chronicle.com.