So much for liberal arts and independent research

[scombrid]

Professors at my Alma Mater now wear corporate logos in their titles like labels on a NASCAR driver's uniform.

It is no longer Professor of Bla Science John Doe. It is XXX Professor of Bla Science John Doe.

Granted XXX is also a major sponsor of NPR but even that bothers me.

So XXX corporation wants to contribute to higher learning and public radio. That should be great. But I feel like the independence of research and reporting in the two cases can only be compromised.

In both cases it is the decline of public funding that has sent the respective entities on their knees to beg for money from corporations.

 

[Nice Squirrel]

Full Sail University?

But being the Endowed Chair professor is nothing new.

The Second Lucasian Chair of Mathematics was Sir Issac Newton. Although I am not sure he wore their logo on his leather jacket when he drove his low-rider donkey around campus.

 

[ksen]

Why do you hate america?

- - - Updated - - -

Full Sail University?

True story, went on a tour of Full Sail in Orlando about 6 years ago when my daughter thought she might want to go there.

Nice facilities . . . expensive as fuck.

 

[scombrid]

Full Sail University?

No. There are plenty of really old bricks around the place. I thought I indicated in my post that it was a public school?

It's a hefty endowment. It funds professors and chairs in a few schools from business to marine science. I guess it should make me like the company better since it donates money to NPR and my school?

I suppose it was just a little jarring seeing XXX Professor of Bla Bla multiple times in the same bulletin. Felt like the whole school had been bought out by XXX. I'm accustomed to seeing the names of rich dead people on the buildings at the schools that I attended but the corporate professors was new to me.

 

[Nice Squirrel]

Okay, so it is an endowment.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_endowment#Endowed_professorships

Just a quick search from my university picks out these chairs:

Qwest Endowed Chair (the company now called CenturyLink)
VFW Endowed Chair
Century Mortar Club Endowed Chair
ADC Telecommunications Chair
Toro Company Chair
Honeywell Endowed Chair

And about a hundred 3M Chairs.

So yes, it looks like it has been a common practice.
_____________

Here is a look at endowments. Check to see where your school is:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_colleges_and_universities_in_the_United_States_by_endowment

My university is currently at $3B

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Okay, so it is an endowment.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_endowment#Endowed_professorships

Just a quick search from my university picks out these chairs:

Qwest Endowed Chair (the company now called CenturyLink)
VFW Endowed Chair
Century Mortar Club Endowed Chair
ADC Telecommunications Chair
Toro Company Chair
Honeywell Endowed Chair

And about a hundred 3M Chairs.

So yes, it looks like it has been a common practice.
_____________

Here is a look at endowments. Check to see where your school is:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_colleges_and_universities_in_the_United_States_by_endowment

My university is currently at $3B

$334 billion in endowments, just in that list. Yipes!

 

[scombrid]

Looking at the list.

Who's ass did VCU kiss in 2012 through 2014?

The top private schools have always had big endowments.

Seeing the corporate label in front of professor titles in public schools is not a familiar site for me. My school once had one of the biggest endowments of all public schools but it was tiny compared to the Ivy League and we didn't have XXX Prof of Econ. The endowment was there but the school didn't seem to be required to kiss Hank's Ass to keep it.

 

[ronburgundy]

Okay, so it is an endowment.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_endowment#Endowed_professorships

Just a quick search from my university picks out these chairs:

Qwest Endowed Chair (the company now called CenturyLink)
VFW Endowed Chair
Century Mortar Club Endowed Chair
ADC Telecommunications Chair
Toro Company Chair
Honeywell Endowed Chair

And about a hundred 3M Chairs.

So yes, it looks like it has been a common practice.
_____________

Here is a look at endowments. Check to see where your school is:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_colleges_and_universities_in_the_United_States_by_endowment

My university is currently at $3B

$334 billion in endowments, just in that list. Yipes!

Those billions are not annual budgets. Those are the total amount of the endowments that sits in investments accounts, and usually only about 5% (the yearly interest) can be used each year by the school.
Those funds are not just used to pay salaries and research stipends to "endowed chairs", but for student scholarships, and just general operating expenses of the University. Also, in addition to corporate donations, they get endowment contributions from Alumni and individual philanthropists. In most cases, the Corporate name tacked onto a "chair" position is little more than a name on a library. It doesn't mean much other than the Corporation gets brand promotion from it. The type of endowed chair most likely to be corrupted by corporate funding are those in Business schools or schools of Economics funded by Finance Corporations. Almost everything the chair does and their impact on what students and the public are told on economic issues is of direct relevance to the political and economic interests of those Corporations. That puts rather clear pressure on the various positions, policy analyses, and schools of thought the Department puts forth. For example, I would worry about a Goldman Sachs Chair of Business, which do exist.

 

[scombrid]

In most cases, the Corporate name tacked onto a "chair" position is little more than a name on a library. It doesn't mean much other than the Corporation gets brand promotion from it.

I'm accustomed to the names of wealthy donors on buildings and schools.

e.g.

http://www.vt.edu/about/buildings/fralin-biotechnology-center.html

I'm not so accustomed to corporate brand promotion tacked to professor titles.

I also wonder about endowments from active corporations versus endowments set up from an estate donation.

The type of endowed chair most likely to be corrupted by corporate funding are those in Business schools or schools of Economics funded by Finance Corporations. Almost everything the chair does and their impact on what students and the public are told on economic issues is of direct relevance to the political and economic interests of those Corporations. That puts rather clear pressure on the various positions, policy analyses, and schools of thought the Department puts forth. For example, I would worry about a Goldman Sachs Chair of Business, which do exist.

I was thinking along the lines of a marine science school that is contracted by a state regulatory agency to do a lot of research and monitoring having positions funded by a corporation that is subject to regulation by the state agencies.

Granted, there's no evidence of influence by XXX at my school. As far as I can tell XXX has done very well lately and expanded an endowment to help out a school that the owners of XXX respect. I'm just naturally distrustful.

 

[ronburgundy]

I'm accustomed to the names of wealthy donors on buildings and schools.

e.g.

http://www.vt.edu/about/buildings/fralin-biotechnology-center.html

I'm not so accustomed to corporate brand promotion tacked to professor titles.

I think you're right that the corporate brand on the public name given to the professorships seems more common now. Those endowments existed before, but the corporation's name wasn't put on it explicitly. For the company, its a write-off. But now it seems the companies are requesting their brand be publicly attached.

I also wonder about endowments from active corporations versus endowments set up from an estate donation.

Sure. A corporation whose sole interest in making the donation is ultimately profit puts more potential pressure on how the money is used than a dead guy.
But often the corporation's profit interests are not very directly tied to most of what that department of position would be doing or researching.

The type of endowed chair most likely to be corrupted by corporate funding are those in Business schools or schools of Economics funded by Finance Corporations. Almost everything the chair does and their impact on what students and the public are told on economic issues is of direct relevance to the political and economic interests of those Corporations. That puts rather clear pressure on the various positions, policy analyses, and schools of thought the Department puts forth. For example, I would worry about a Goldman Sachs Chair of Business, which do exist.

I was thinking along the lines of a marine science school that is contracted by a state regulatory agency to do a lot of research and monitoring having positions funded by a corporation that is subject to regulation by the state agencies.

If that situation actually existed, then yes that would be serious cause for alarm, but I don't know of many endowments in science with such a direct connection. The reason I think Business schools are so venerable to corruption for corporate money is that, unlike in your Marine Science example, it doesn't really matter whether there is a direct match with what the corporation does. They all engage in business practices and promote policies that are of central relevance to the intellectual discipline of economics and finance. It doesn't help that so much of what passes for academic "economics" is more ideology than science in the first place.

I'm just naturally distrustful.

Good. That's a critical step in being rational.

 

[Nice Squirrel]

I think you're right that the corporate brand on the public name given to the professorships seems more common now. Those endowments existed before, but the corporation's name wasn't put on it explicitly. For the company, its a write-off. But now it seems the companies are requesting their brand be publicly attached.

Yep in past times if the corporation did not begin with a name (like H.B. Fuller), they would donate in the name of an executive. In memory of H.B. Fuller, III.

 

[dismal]

Century Mortar Club Endowed Chair

I wonder if that's "mortar" as in the projectile firing weapon, the cement in between the bricks, or the thing with the pestle.

In any case, if it were me I would play up the "Endowed" part.

 

[Nice Squirrel]

Century Mortar Club Endowed Chair

I wonder if that's "mortar" as in the projectile firing weapon, the cement in between the bricks, or the thing with the pestle.

In any case, if it were me I would play up the "Endowed" part.

Looked it up. It's a Pharmacy club.

 

[jonatha]

Looked it up. It's a Pharmacy club.

A Pharmacy club.

Is that like where all the girls wear two aspirins instead of pasties?

 

[dismal]

I wonder if that's "mortar" as in the projectile firing weapon, the cement in between the bricks, or the thing with the pestle.

In any case, if it were me I would play up the "Endowed" part.

Looked it up. It's a Pharmacy club.

Well, that probably rules out the cement between bricks.