Student Group Sues George Mason University over Donations from Koch Brothers

A student group is suing George Mason University, seeking to force the school to publicly disclose all grant and gift agreements it has with the Koch brothers, reports Campus Reform.

“Large donations to universities are not a new phenomena, but emerging evidence shows that the agenda behind some donations may jeopardize the academic freedom and integrity of universities,” the Transparent GMU student group asserts on its Facebook page. “We aim to shed light on the potential undue influence of GMU donors. We are calling on GMU to ensure academic freedom and integrity is upheld.”

According to Washington Business Journal, students are concerned about possible conditions that may have been attached to donations that GMU received from the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation.

GMU has been one of the largest university recipients of donations in the last several years from the Koch brothers, receiving $48 million from the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation between 2011 and 2014, the Associated Press reported. The school also received a gift in 2016 of $10 million as part of a larger package to rename the Virginia university’s law school after the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.

The suit, filed in Fairfax County Circuit Court on Thursday, claims that attempts to obtain specific information about the donations have been rejected. While the foundation claims it is independent of George Mason, the group of students, who call themselves Transparent GMU, argue the foundation is an "agent of the university" and should be subject to the same public information requirements.

If students don't like the way GMU is run, or what the university chooses to disclose, they should move to a different school. That is what real freedom is about---allowing people to do whatever they want on their own damn property, including GMU, as long as NAP is not violated.

  -RW