Donations
Continued from Page 1
Programs
Oregon Campaign donors have
many ways to direct their money
throughout the University. They
can give one-time gifts or make a
long-term gift commitment. They
can endow a faculty chair or ini
tiate a student scholarship pro
gram.
But donors also have the op
portunity to establish gifts with
very specific purposes, be they
funding new fields of study, as
donor James Warsaw did for
sports marketing, or building
new facilities, as donor Phil
Knight, Nike’s CEO, did for the
new law school.
If a donation to a college is un
designated, the dean of the col
lege decides where the money
goes. An undesignated donation
to the University ends up in the
hands of President Dave Frohn
mayer.
There are limits, however.
Donors are screened through
out the process to make sure their
requests mesh with academic
priorities and are in the Universi
ty’s best interest, said Duncan
McDonald, vice president for
public affairs and development.
In these discussions, donations
are dictated by University needs
and not donor needs McDonald
said.
Academic freedom threatened?
Critics of the program question
whether private donations are in
the best interest of the Universi
ty.
Julie Fox, an adjunct sociology
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professor, believes that the Uni
versity’s new emphasis on donor
money creates a situation where
the University and its faculty be
gin to worry about criticizing
funding sources in their academ
ic research.
Fox posed a couple of ques
tions: Would there be a tendency
for donors to cut off their dona
tions if the University criticized
their business practices or poli
tics? And would the University
then stifle its research to keep the
money?
This situation has happened
before. Perhaps the most publi
cized event occurred at Yale Uni
versity in 1995.
Yale alumnus Lee Bass had
given $20 million in 1991 to cre
ate more Western civilization
courses. He asked for it back in
1995 after controversy erupted
because some faculty members
believed the courses weren’t
needed, according The Chronicle
of Higher Education.
Yale officials said their deci
sion to give the money back
hinged on Bass's insistence that
he approve the instructors for the
new courses..
Fox said she believes a similar
story happened when she taught
sociology at Loyola University in
New Orleans in 1995. Freeport
McMoRan, a global mining cor
poration, had given $600,000 to
establish an environmental com
munications chair.
The gift sparked debate across
the campus because of charges
that the corporation treated its In
donesian workers poorly and
that the company had a poor en
vironmental record.
The criticism culminated in a
protest outside the home of the
corporation’s CEO, after which
The New Orleans Times
Picayune reported that the CEO
asked Loyola for its money back.
But money stayed and the
chair was filled a year later. Fox
has publicly charged and criti
cized Loyola for trying to sanc
tion those involved in the
protest, although the university
claims no such thing occurred.
Fox, who came to Eugene as an
adjunct professor that same year,
said she’s seen potential for con
flict here.
Students and faculty have
protested Nike on campus in re
cent years, making charges of
poor labor practices in Southeast
Asia. And yet the University took
a $25 million donation from
Knight, seemingly an endorse
ment by students and the Univer
sity of Nike practices, she said.
“Well, the workers would like
recognition for what they gave,”
Fox said. "Philanthropy obscures
where the money is coming
from.”
In her mind, corporate philan
thropy also hinders the Universi
ty’s academic freedom because
faculty members may fear that
any research critical of the com
pany could result in the compa
(( I've never had
anybody tell me to
behave a certain way or
do certain research
because of a donor. »
Lynn Kahle
Sports marketing professor
ny pulling its money out, as hap
pened at Loyola,
Sociology graduate student
Ann Strahm said she was dis
couraged by sociology faculty
members from pursuing a disser
tation critical of Nike, because it
woidd probably put any graduate
review committee in an uncom
fortable position.
McDonald called the idea that
fund raising from the Oregon
Campaign could cause a silenc
ing of research and criticism
against private donors “paranoid
and idiotic." He said the Univer
sity would never sacrifice its aca
demic freedom.
“What professor, what director
... in their right mind would ever
want to suppress” criticism, he
said, "if in fact what a university
is all about is research, inquiry
and discussion.”
McDonald said that he’s been
amazed at how low-key donors
have been, almost to the point of
being shy at wanting any recogni
tion — a far cry from trying to
dictate the University’s func
tions.
"People contribute to the Uni
versity and ask for little in re
turn,” he said.
He also points to the strong fac
ulty government that stands be
hind campus research and
wouldn’t be silenced if it felt
pressured by the implications of
the campaign.
"Am I aware that anything like
this has every happened? Ab
solutely not,” he said. “Would I
stand for it? No.”
Word Around Campus
If individual cases show there
is pressure not to criticize Nike
on campus, sociology assistant
professor Michael Dreiling said,
they wouldn’t directly show that
a donor’s influence on campus is
silencing research.
Instead, Dreiling focuses on
the overall effect of private mon
ey on campus. He said he sees
private money having more and
more control over the Universi
ty’s curriculum.
“Why do we have a business
school and one of the only sports
marketing programs in the coun
try?” he said. “These are the
questions we should ask our
selves"
“But why don't we have a la
bor studies program?”
Dreiling believes private fund
raising and the donors’ ability to
fund specific programs is leading
the University in a direction that
focuses on producing students
with marketable knowledge in
stead of students who are critical
thinkers and good citizens.
A simple comparison between
the campus’s run-down build
ings and newly renovated build
ings shows where donors are em
phasizing scholarship, he said.
“Who’s working in those
buildings? What kind of non
marketable knowledge is being
produced out of those arenas?”
he said.
Fox claims that companies —
or individuals who represent
companies — are giving money
to receive the indirect benefit of
free student research. She points
to Sports Specialties Corporation
President James Warsaw, a
sports-cap producer, and his cre
ation of the sports marketing de
partment as the quintessential
example.
Sports marketing professor
Lynn Kahle said there’s much
critical learning occurring in the
business school, one of the build
ings to receive $10 million in
1994, and it doesn’t have to do
strictly with research that compa
nies can use.
He points to his own studies,
where he is less focused on
sports marketing and more on the
psychological questions behind
consumerism.
He said that sports marketing
department research does benefit
the industry in general, but busi
ness research is published in
public places where anyone can
use it, not solely a specific com
pany.
Kahle, who has been at the
business school 15 years, said he
is appreciative of the private
money coming into the Universi
ty. He doesn’t buy the argument
that his research would he taint
ed by the needs of donors.
“I’ve never had anybody tell
me to behave a certain way or do
certain research because of a
donor,” he said.
And often, donors have com
peting businesses and marketing
theories, he said.
In sports marketing, for exam
ple, Knight’s and Warsaw’s mar
keting philosophies often contra
dict each other.
“If my academic integrity has
been bought by a gift, which way
would I go?" he said.
Some on campus tend to think
society hasn’t given enough to
higher education.
Bill Harbaugh, an assistant
economics professor whose re
search focuses on why people
give money to charities, has con
cluded that people give money
not for the quid pro quo or tax
break, but for the warm glow
they receive from it.
Harbaugh said he believes peo
ple are not charitable enough and
that society would like them to
give more.
He sees private donations from
the Oregon Campaign in the
same way. The University has
come up with a way to praise
and recognize donors, he said,
and donors are now forking over
their share.
Although there is potential for
donors to try to forward their
agendas, most donors initiate
programs that are positive, such
as Judaic Studies, he said.
“It’s a totally worthwhile
thing,” he said. “It’s hard to argue
that that’s a problem.”
Janis Weeks, biology depart
ment head, said the University is
between a rock and a hard place.
“We’re trying to run the best
university we can with ever-de
creasing resources," she said.
"We have to look at whatever
possible funding ... but we don’t
want to sell our souls to the dev
il.”
Weeks said most Oregon Cam
paign money in her department
has been focused on student
scholarship.
But she is leery of donations
that might have political conse
quences or corporate interests be
hind them. And she wants to
know how donations are evaluat
ed before the University accepts
them.
uuestioning bins
The UO Foundation has a gift
acceptance policy. Smaller dona
tions and donors are approved by
deans of colleges and develop
ment officials. Larger gifts go
through the University adminis
tration or Frohnmayer.
McDonald said no gift has ever
been challenged.
The policy states a gift could
be denied in the following cases:
if it fell outside the boundaries of
approved curriculum or faculty
position; if the donor gained un
due influence over the Universi
ty through the donation; if the
money was “tainted” - given
through illegal or questionable
sources; or the donor is “notori
ous,” as a donor with a Mafia,
Nazi or terrorist background
would be.
In most situations, McDonald
said, a public challenge would
occur only after the University al
ready accepted the money. The
gifts can be returned, he said.
He advises concerned mem
bers of the University communi
ty to first question a dean or de
partment head about a gift, and if
still unsatisfied to request a for
mal review of the gift.
Harbaugh believes it’s an ade
quate system.
“The real question is, if the
money’s perfectly legal, but some
people just have moral qualms
about its source, should they be
able to prevent the University
from taking the money?” he said.
Harbaugh said no.
But Fox said yes.
Of course U.S. companies can
exploit Third World workers
without it being called illegal,
she said, but to ignore such ac
tions makes for a fund raising
system with low standards.
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