Seth Slabaugh

seths@muncie.gannett.com

MUNCIE — The agreement that Ball State University signed with the Charles Koch Foundation and "Papa John" Schnatter requires the university to promote understanding of the virtues of free enterprise, aka limited government.

In March, the foundation and the founder of Papa John's donated $3,250,000 to Ball State for the creation of the John H. Schnatter Institute for Entrepreneurship and Free Enterprise.

Its mission, according to the grant agreement, is to "become a national model for values- and ethics-based entrepreneurship, developing research and talent to help solve contemporary problems and promote understanding of the characteristics and virtues of free enterprise in helping people improve their lives."

"Free enterprise is identical to free-market capitalism or small government, referring to political reforms that are deregulatory in nature," said Ralph Wilson, a researcher at UnKoch My Campus. "To promote free enterprise, that is not an objective study of a political ideology. That assumes that the virtue is there. It's like, 'Let's dig it up and show people the virtuous side.' It's a one-sided accounting of political ideology."

The characteristics of free enterprise, an economic system, include businesses operating in competition largely free of government interference.

"The free enterprise system is the greatest mechanism mankind has ever created to eliminate poverty, enhance prosperity and enable the pursuit of happiness," Schnatter told The Star Press through a spokesperson when the agreement was signed.

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In accordance with the agreement, the institute also will:

• "Engage in cross-campus teaching and training of students, professors, and campus and community leaders in entrepreneurship and free enterprise."

• "Inform ripe policy debates about issues affecting entrepreneurship and free enterprise in Indiana.

For years, Ball State has promoted itself as Indiana's entrepreneurial university, receiving an extra state appropriation of $5 million a year to help it specialize in the field of entrepreneurship: innovation, risk taking and start-ups.

"We've owned it," then-BSU President Paul Ferguson said in his annual address to faculty and staff to kick off the fall semester last August. "It's ours … Ball State is the entrepreneurial university."

During the speech, Ferguson announced the appointment of distinguished professor Michael Goldsby as the school's first chief entrepreneurship officer, and assistant professor Jennifer Blackmer as Ball State's first associate provost for entrepreneurial learning.

But Ball State's grant agreement with Koch and Schnatter suggests the university henceforth has agreed to be known as Indiana's entrepreneurial/free enterprise university.

"Everywhere you've got 'entrepreneurship' in this contract you have 'free enterprise,' " Wilson said during a talk at Ball State last month to students and faculty organizing an UnKoch chapter at Ball State. "So they've taken the tag word (entrepreneurial) and they've attached free market capitalism to it and said, 'Let's go.'"

He added: "The mission of the institute is not an isolated entity on campus. The program Koch has created here is all-pervasive across the university. They have created a situation where anyone at Ball State who wants to get in on this will have access to funding for free-market ideological purposes. They want to create not just a center that has their people in it; they want to create a decentralized presence on campus, something they've done at several other universities as well."

During an interview, acting Ball State President Terry King said he understands "how somebody can disagree with our approaches here. That's one of the things that makes a university a great place to be. We can have differing opinions and we are a place where those opinions can be debated and discussed."

The fact of the matter is Ball State has been offering entrepreneurship academic degree programs since 1983, and in recent years "we have been looking at how we can expand that brand or identity across the entire institution, not just in academic degree programs but in the way we operate … ," King said. "This gift from the two foundations allows us to accelerate that."

He continued: "It's part of our scholarly agenda to explore various things, and it (free enterprise) is a legitimate area of study. In fact, our department of economics currently has folks who do scholarly work in free markets and free enterprise and publish in that area regularly, so to say that is inappropriate for a university does not make sense to me."

Furthermore, he noted that Ball State has had a relationship with the Charles Koch Foundation since 2009, "and it's not had a negative impact on the university. We are firmly committed to institutional control of our academic programs. The faculty have absolute control … and in my opinion cannot be influenced by outside entities. I can imagine a number of people would like to have an impact on the university, but I am confident that Ball State has all the processes and procedures in place with faculty controls that just will not let anything negative happen."

The Koch foundation declined comment.

Goldsby, Ball State's chief entrepreneurship officer, will direct the new institute. In 2011, he obtained an $8,000 grant from the Koch foundation for activities including guest speakers.

"Michael Goldsby already received Koch funding before this institute was even created, so the donor already has vetted Goldsby's ability to be compliant," Wilson said.

Since 2009, Ball State economics faculty have obtained more than $75,000 in grants from the foundation for university programs, guest speakers, a "Liberty Project," and student travel, field trips and activities.

"If the scholarly activities in the Koch/Schnatter contract are contingent on faculty and students to promote the virtues of free enterprise, the research and advocacy have a clear, predetermined outcome, stipulated by the donors and in the private interests of the donors," Wilson told The Star Press. "This cannot be described as academic inquiry into free enterprise … The outcomes are predetermined by the donor agreement, and any failure of compliance is grounds for the donors to withdraw at any time. It is coerced inquiry."

The Star Press asked King if there is a difference between studying free enterprise and promoting understanding of it. "I don't think it's different," he replied. "We talk about various types of theoretical aspects in every department, so it seems appropriate to me."

Wilson also claims the agreement's section on academic freedom is laced with a code word for free market capitalism: "well being." The Charles Koch Institute launched a well-being initiative in 2014.

Wilson cited recent reporting by Jane Mayer, a writer for The New Yorker who obtained access to audio recordings of a secret Koch summit:

"At another panel that weekend, James Otteson, a professor of political economy at Wake Forest University’s business school, argued that using the term 'well-being' would be 'a game changer.' He added that he was setting up an institute devoted to well-being at Wake Forest. To illustrate the power of framing free-market theories in this way, he shared an anecdote.

"A colleague, whom he described as a 'left-wing political scientist' who 'railed' against Republicans and capitalism, had been so fully persuaded by Otteson’s description of factors contributing to human well-being — 'peace and security,' 'health,' 'environment' — that he had said, 'You know, even I’d be willing to take Koch money for that.' The donors laughed. “Who can be against well-being?” Otteson exclaimed. “The framing is absolutely critical.”

Contact Seth Slabaugh at (765) 213-5834.

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