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Monday, December 18, 2006

Two of the Earliest Academic Heroes...

...to be honored here at University Diaries -- Susan Andrews and John Creed of the University of Alaska -- are back in the news. When this blog was kneehigh to a grasshopper, UD followed with admiration these two professors' successful efforts to keep a diploma mill graduate from running the UA faculty senate.

Now Andrews and Creed are back, with an opinion piece in Alaska Report deploring the cozy relationship between big oil and the university's leadership.

First, they note that the university's president and public relations office routinely refer to compulsory "indirect oil royalty payments" to the university, which were negotiated as part of a business agreement with the state, as charitable gifts from the oil companies involved.

Apparently it's not enough that BP [one of the oil companies] has a basketball tournament at the University of Alaska Fairbanks named after the company. In November 2005 in front of basketball fans, BP officials "produced two UAF jerseys bearing the number 2.28 to represent their gift of $2.28 million," the News-Miner reported. Can UA get much more tacky?

As UA professors, we are uncomfortable watching our university president shill for oil companies.

... Pandering does carry risks. Sadly, [UA President] Hamilton's hustling for the oil patch is neither necessary nor honest. These payments are not outright gifts to the university. They are installments in a negotiated payment schedule for which the state has granted the oil companies valuable consideration. Hamilton knows that.

Our university president should not be pimping for Big Oil. We Alaskans do not employ him as an industry publicist, but as a guardian of a university's integrity.
Posted at: 12/18/2006 02:04:00 PM