The headline in the April 28 Washington Post sounded dire: “George Mason president: Some donations ‘fall short’ of academic standards.â€
The story quoted an e-mail from George Mason University president Ãngel Cabrera declaring that some donations to the school and its independent think tank, the Mercatus Center, “raise questions about donor influence at the public institution.†The story quoted a professor alleging that the school’s administration “violated principles of academic freedom, academic control and ceded faculty governance to private donors.â€
Ominous stuff. But Cabrera’s admission was vague and heavily qualified: “The agreements did not give donors control over academic decisions, and all but the earliest of these agreements explicitly stated that the final say in all faculty appointments lies in university procedures,†Cabrera wrote. “Yet these agreements fall short of the standards of academic independence I expect any gift to meet.†Cabrera didn’t specify how those agreements fell short. A subsequent article quoted a representative from a progressive activist group, UnKoch My Campus, that painted the university as trying to cover up a corrupt deal, transforming the school into a fully purchased puppet of the Koch network’s libertarian agenda.
Read more at:
https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/05/washington-post-koch-brothers-scoop-falls-apart
