Among the various revelations in Tim Steller’s important article in this Sunday’s Star [6/21/2020] about the “Freedom Center” [FC] and the behavior of its dictator – excuse me, director – David Schmidtz, one was of particular importance.

It was already known that Schmidtz had been funding the new Department of Political Economy and Moral Sciences [PEMS] by passing through the millions the Arizona State Legislature had designated for the FC (an action of questionable propriety). According to Steller’s article, Schmidtz unilaterally torpedoed the hiring of faculty for PEMS last year by withdrawing the funding he had been providing PEMS. The proposed hires were the result of the standard search procedures that universities follow, but they were apparently unsatisfactory to Schmidtz. Now PEMS is on its own, with no hires, and with its funding apparently left to seek. 

The point is not that we should feel sorry for PEMS, which the FC—i.e., Schmidtz--created, and which is obviously intended to further the political agenda of the FC and its backers. No, the point is that Schmidtz interfered directly and autocratically in the hiring of faculty. This is precisely the sort of violation of academic freedom by the FC that KOC! has been trying to bring to the attention of the public. It is definitely not something that a donor can openly request!

Earlier, the “right” to carry out this kind of improper interference in faculty hiring was expressly stated in undisclosed donor agreements that the FC entered into and that KOC! obtained via public records requests, after much foot-dragging by the UA administration. It was also implicit in multi-year donations, where the power to suspend the donation at any point remained with the donor. Now, it is happening without any need for improper donor agreements or an explicit or unstated threat of termination of funding if the donor’s will is not done. Without, apparently, even the nods and winks that have replaced the contracts that the Koch donor network and its allies used to demand.

As a director of one of the hundreds of other Koch-backed academic centers on campuses around this country put it a few years ago, “The donor intent is vested in the director of the institute” (Association of Private Enterprise Education panel, 4/5/2016, page 17). In other words, find or appoint the right person, ideologically speaking, to run an academic center or “institute” at a university, and who needs written agreements? The director will do what the donors want on his or her own, with no need for further prompting. Schmidtz’s interference in the hiring of faculty for PEMS is proof positive of how the system works.

Q.E.D.!