Plutocrat donors are shaping the agenda at elite universities

I'm able to read it if I open the HN "web" link in a new private window and click through there.

This sort of thing has been going on for a while.

https://publicintegrity.org/federal-politics/koch-foundation...

> In 2007, when the Charles Koch Foundation considered giving millions of dollars to Florida State University’s economics department, the offer came with strings attached.

> First, the curriculum it funded must align with the libertarian, deregulatory economic philosophy of Charles Koch, the billionaire industrialist and Republican political bankroller.

> Second, the Charles Koch Foundation would at least partially control which faculty members Florida State University hired.

> And third, Bruce Benson, a prominent libertarian economic theorist and Florida State University economics department chairman, must stay on another three years as department chairman — even though he told his wife he’d step down in 2009 after one three-year term.

Shouldn't elite universities already be independent? The Ivy Leagues for instance have stupidly large endowment funds for one for that exact purpose! They don't seem to be using them in "burn happy" ways either like free tuition to all or funding large ammounts into their own research funding.

It could be pathological greed of getting more than they have ability or desire to spend - particularly if it is their job to gain more.

It would make sense for connections to be worth more than mere money per say and the donations are proxies/symbolic.

That is putting aside suspicion agendas against universities that have existed since students protested the war.