The Koch brothers shouldn’t be involved in education. They are an atrocious influence on students and aid in the decline of progress in the United States.
The Koch brothers are known for their support of radical conservative beliefs, like cutting higher educational funding and bullying tactics when it comes to negative media coverage. They pretend to share common interests with citizens, but act in their own interests, which leads me to be suspicious of the new Koch Center of Leadership and Ethics at Emporia State.
Koch Industries and other affiliates of the Koch brothers have invested in other universities in the U.S. Florida State has received money from Koch family, but the money came with some criticism from students and faculty, saying that the Koch family threatens the educational integrity of the school and the academic freedom of the classroom.
A special contract with FSU allows the Kochs to influence the decision, or completely decide to, hire and fire a professor based on what they teach and if it reflects the views of the Koch Brothers. If they have a similar contract with ESU, then our academic freedom is at jeopardy.
I find this potential invasion of our university disturbing. I don’t feel comfortable with the ever-watchful eye of the Koch brothers looming over our university, molding it in their image.
We, as a university, should not lie down and give independent donors – who have their own agendas – to have that much influence in the classroom. It defeats the purpose of academic freedom.
In June, ESU news said, “The work supported by the Koch Center will be grounded in academic freedom and will positively impact students, faculty and the community.”
I find this hard to believe after reviewing our great donor’s history of pushing for less government funding for higher education, wanting secret contracts with universities that give them the authority and capability to terminate professors they have academic or political disagreements with and pushing their own corrupt practices and ideas in the classroom.
The Kochs are not the type of role-models ESU should be looking for and completely disagree with the university’s decision of naming the center after them. They are not the kind of people I want influencing students at ESU.
Their money should not be able to buy influence in our classrooms.