Don’t Let the Kochs Co-opt Colleges

OUR PETITION

We, the undersigned, demand George Washington University:

• Close the Regulatory Studies Center (RSC) or implement a series of reforms to restore its integrity;
• Disclose all funders of the RSC, as well as agreements between the RSC and those funders and funding applications the center has submitted to private donors; and
• Develop a policy to prevent institutional conflicts of interest, including establishing a conflict-of-interest oversight committee with third-party members that would issue public reports assessing the RSC’s compliance with the policy.

A new Public Citizen report has found that the George Washington University’s Koch-funded Regulatory Studies Center:

• Regularly submits “public comments” to government agencies seeking to roll back regulations;
• Relies primarily on people who have been affiliated with Koch-funded organizations to produce its materials; and
• Focuses its antiregulatory work on undermining rules addressing climate change, pollution and energy efficiency … the very issues that would be of primary concern to a Big Oil corporation like ... Koch Industries.

Charles Koch helps fund more than 50 other university centers. The faux scholarship these university centers produce is kicked upstairs to Koch’s constellation of think tanks and organizations, which use it to lobby for dangerous policy changes. A top Koch strategist called this process the “structure of production of ideas.”

That’s why it is critical that we take action now.

Join us in calling on George Washington University to divest from the Koch money machine by shutting down the center or putting serious protections in place to restore its integrity.