Daily Archives: December 24, 2013


Kansas Board of Regents Undermine Academic Freedom at State Universities 1

The Real News Network has the video Kansas Board of Regents Undermine Academic Freedom at State Universities.

Draconian measure enacted by Kansas Board of Regents that effectively ends tenure and limits academic freedom could be replicated at colleges nationwide


In my 4 day old blog post The Kansas Regents (Casually) End Academic Freedom, you had to read what William Black had to say. In this post you can sit back and watch the video about him discussing the same topic. Maybe seeing is believing.


Rachel Maddow: Charles Koch buying sway over university hires is ‘objectively insane’

The Rawstory has the article Rachel Maddow: Charles Koch buying sway over university hires is ‘objectively insane’.

“Forget naming rights to the stadium, or whatever,” Maddow said, explaining that Koch “purchased hiring rights for the faculty at Florida State’s economics department. And yes, Florida State has the word ‘state’ in it because it is a public university, and yes, it is objectively insane that the state of Florida allowed that to happen.”

As the Tampa Bay Times reported in 2011, a foundation funded by Koch gave $1.5 million to the school’s economics department in 2008, in exchange for Koch having the power to select members of an “advisory committee” that screens prospective new hires. A year later, Koch reportedly rejected 60 percent of job candidates suggested by FSU faculty.

Watch Maddow’s commentary, as aired on Monday, below.


I think I now understand the timing behind JaneS’s Facebook comment about Florida State University.

However, my recent rants actually have been inspired by the same story that Maddow discovered. On August 21, 2013, I had the post How Billionaire ‘Philanthropy’ Is Fueling Inequality and Helping To Destroy the Country.