Abstract:
This article examines seventy-two available donor agreements between the Charles Koch Foundation (CKF) and academic institutions signed from 1990 to 2024. We find that contracts signed through 2013 include considerable direct donor control over the hiring of faculty, with most contracts allowing donors to sit directly on hiring committees. Contracts signed after 2013 seem to acknowledge that such practices might be seen as violations of academic freedom. These later contracts are based on template language that includes several provisions that obscure the donor influence, making it more diffuse and cloaked in the language of academic freedom. For example, these later agreements often fund named individuals who direct the CKF-funded centers, thereby still giving the donor considerable influence over what academic work takes place on campus.
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