Freedom Center and UA Administration Covered Up Koch Grants and Influence

 
 

  • A Tenured Professor Was Hired With Koch 1M Gift - This document confirms that Guido Pincione was hired on 7/1/10 with the $1 million grant that Koch agreed to on 7/7/09, and that Pincione would be named the Charles G. Koch Professor of Philosophy.

  • UA Minimized Koch Money in Response to an AP Query - Six years after Prof. Pincione was hired with Koch money, a UA administrator told Associated Press that Koch money was only a fraction of the Freedom Center’s donor support, and that it was used primarily for graduate student support and travel. (See pages 3-4 in the link.) The truth is that Koch did give money for graduate students, but that was in addition to the initial $1 million Koch grant for a tenured professor.

  • 9-21-17 Provost Letter to Community Member Still Denies Major Koch Funding - Seven years after Prof. Pincione was hired with the initial $1 million Koch grant, UA Provost Andrew Comrie was still telling the public; “That initial funding was used to support graduate students.” (See page 2 in the link.)

  • Two Days After ABOR Approved the Department of Political Economy and Moral Science, UA Finally Admitted that Koch Had Given the Freedom Center $1 Million - Only one week after Provost Comrie’s email said the Koch initial funding was used only to support graduate students, and only two days after ABOR approved the new Department of Political Economy and Moral Science, Freedom Center Director David Schmidtz recommended that the UA Administration announce that Koch had previously given the Freedom Center $1 million. The timing suggests that the UA Administration coordinated with the Freedom Center to cover up the $1 million Koch grant until Arizona Board Of Regents [ABOR] had approved the new department.

  • On 7/19/18, the Dean of SBS Denied that Koch Had Any Influence on Hiring - Ten months later, the dean still claimed that the Koch Foundation’s financial support of the Freedom Center did not purchase any political leverage on UA’s hiring practices.