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UW-Stout Chancellor: Donation From Charles Koch Foundation Has ‘No Strings Attached’

Safeguards Built Into Grant Agreement From Billionaire, Chancellor Says

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UW-Stout
Jennanelson02 (CC BY-SA 4.0)

University of Wisconsin-Stout Chancellor Bob Meyer is defending a recent high-dollar donation from the Charles Koch Foundation.

Koch — a billionaire who often donates to Republican political candidates and libertarian causes — is known, along with his brother David, for financing conservative causes across the country.

The foundation awarded an initial grant totaling $425,000, which the school is using to create The Center for the Study of Institutions and Innovation. In a press release Tuesday, UW-Stout described the center, which will host various speakers, as a place to facilitate “civil and rational debate” on civil liberties issues.

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According to the university, the grant is renewable for up to three years, bringing the potential total amount awarded over that period to $1.7 million.

Rep. Chris Taylor, D-Madison, criticized the donation Tuesday on Twitter, writing that the Koch brothers were “starting to buy parts of the UW System.”

Meyer told WPR on Wednesday that the donation will have no influence on the kinds of discussions the center will host.

“I have absolutely no reservations on that point, I know that we have built safeguards into this,” Meyer said. “There are no strings attached to this money, it is clean.”

Tim Shiell, a professor in the university’s English and philosophy department, will be the center’s director. Meyer said Shiell aims to have speakers or discussions at the center represent both sides of any topic.

“If we have a speaker that comes in with, let’s say a certain ideology, we want to make sure we have a panel of experts addressing the other point of view,” Meyer said.

Meyer acknowledged Koch was a controversial figure, and said because of that he and the university’s separate foundation made it clear the agreement would be “fully vetted.”

He further said the university made it known that if UW-Stout was going to accept the gift, it would be used in a way that “did not have an ideology or a specific agenda.”

Meyer said Shiell is working to put together the center’s first speaker.