What’s in a name? Dale Carnegie once said, “The sweetest sound to anyone’s ears is the sound of their own name.”

Apparently that doesn’t hold true at Montana State University when it comes to naming buildings or receiving grants.

It’s only permissible if the faculty agrees with the ideology of the giver of the grant.

No Koch Brothers Need Apply

The notorious Charles Koch Foundation, champion of evil capitalism, is generous enough to offer a $5.7 million-dollar grant to MSU.

The MSU faculty is saddled with a decision to accept a building that will possibly be called The Center for Regulation and Applied Economic Analysis.

If they wanted to call it the Koch Brothers Center for Conservative Indoctrination I could understand the concern.

What exactly is the problem? The Koch’s are not the KKK or the Aryan Nation. What makes their money so unacceptable?

It seems that some faculty members are suggesting that somehow the building will indoctrinate the students with the Koch’s conservative, libertarian ideology.

I think a strong case can be made that Montana Hall hasn’t instilled all the virtues, cultures and traditions of Montana in all students who wander it’s historic halls.

In fact the opposite might be true.

If I walk into the hospital am I suddenly under the mind control of the American Medical Association?

It’s a building folks. You can pick and choose who teaches there. The very concept of there even being a debate is ludicrous.

It’s sad that we let politics overrule what could possibly be a positive for the students that choose, — that being the keyword, — choose to avail themselves of the offered coursework.

I doubt any Koch courses will be mandatory.

Maybe It’s Just Certain Conservatives

The university faculty didn’t have a problem relieving Greg Gianforte, who was then a Montana gubernatorial candidate, of an $8 million computer science department pledge.

Jake Jabs, certainly a capitalist of the highest order, ponied up $25 million for his name on the College of Business.

Norm Asbjornson sponsored the College of Engineering to the tune of $55 million.

Their money didn’t seem to leave a bad taste in faculty wallets.

Some Final Thoughts

Let’s call this what it is. Those who are slaves to a particular political ideology have their enemies list and no deviation from that list is allowed no matter how just the cause might be.

And the Koch Brothers are at the top of every progressive faculty professor’s list.

But is that a legitimate reason to deny your students more opportunities for diverse thinking? I think not.

My advice to MSU — take the money and run. Surely you can turn it into a liberal stronghold in short order. What’s your take?

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