Pepsi U
Universities jump into bed with big corporations

HighGrader Magazine January/February 1999
by Linda Pannozzo

"We are faced by a problem of conformity brought on by our corporate structures. While the Universities ought to be centres of active, independent public criticism, they tend instead to sit prudently under the protective veils of their own corporations. Universities, which ought to embody humanism, are instead obsessed by aligning themselves with specific market forces."
- John Ralston Saul, Unconscious Civilization

Last year, the School of Journalism at the University of King's College in Halifax, had a tough choice to make. Like any other university program, they were faced with having to make do with fewer government dollars. The pressures to offer the best program with the latest and most up-to-date equipment are real, especially when students could choose to go elsewhere. So when the Sable Island Gas Project came calling they made a point of listening.
The multi-billion dollar project to tap into the natural gas reserves off the coast of Nova Scotia has been touted as the one-stop solution for the job-challenged province. So, why were they interested in the J-school?
The project promoters stated they felt there was a need for a course in Science Journalism and were willing to pay for it. What better way to teach students how to write about the field of science than to have them write about the Sable Island Gas Project - where the class of budding journalists could put out a weekly newsletter with articles answering all those touchy, controversial questions the pesky citizenry were raising. Oh, and of course there would be editorial independence.
See any potential conflict here? The J-school did and decided to reject the offer.
University-industry "partnerships" have become ubiquitous features of university campuses. Corporate advertising is everywhere. Food is provided by names like Tim Hortons, Pizza Pizza, Burger King, universities sign exclusive contracts with soft drink companies in exchange for cash (Dalhousie University in Halifax is a Pepsi university), and pressure is palpable to commercialize nearly everything - even the cheerleading team at Acadia University has buckled and goes by the name Pepsi Power.
The new alliances have also hatched numerous research projects in the fields of biotechnology and applied sciences raising a raft of concerns about whether universities are selling their souls. For instance, Novartis Pharmaceuticals Inc. recently funded the first chair worldwide in xenotransplantation (using animal organs/tissues in humans) at Western University in London, Ontario. The $1.5 million investment by Novartis gives them access to the university's facilities, equipment and expertise.
If the research bears fruit, Novartis will be reaping quite a harvest. The expected profits to be made by transforming animals into organ factories is astronomical. One estimate is that by the year 2010, there will be a need for more than 500,000 pig organs alone - a drug industry revenue of $10-12 billion.
In John Ralston Saul's book The Doubter's Companion, he says that the "aura of independent expertise" that is unique to universities is being sold to governments and corporations. He writes, "universities are now desperate for money and only too eager to prostitute themselves. Presidents and their boards accuse the departments, who do not bring in their share, of fleeing reality. But do they have the right to destroy an essential creation of modern civilization?"

Sam Scully is the Vice President of Academics and Research at Dalhousie University. He's heard questions like this before and says they are "serious and appropriate." He says it's important to discuss whether private sector research funding is shaping or dictating the research agendas of universities and to what degree it distorts the amount of "basic" or non-directed research that is funded.
Scully says there are definitely more research dollars coming from industry but he argues it tends to go to the applied fields where they end up benefiting the public.
But Dr. Jeff Hutchings disagrees. He teaches biology at Dalhousie University. According to Hutchings, basic research is seriously underfunded and, yet, this is the research that will in the long-run best serve society. Conversely, industry funded research, by way of contracts to professors, Industrial Research Chairs and research grants via partnerships, prepares the university as a training ground for industry or government.
He says that when this happens, important questions no longer get asked.
"It's important to be able to conduct research and not be constrained by it," he says. "If I had a Department of Fisheries and Oceans Chair at the university, how much would I be able to speak out against the DFO, or draw attention to problems?" Hutchings says these associations would make independent and unfettered critique impossible.
The Federal agency that provides funding for university research is the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC). It reports to parliament through the Minister of Industry. Funding what they call Industrial Research Chairs (IRC) has increased. Since l988 the amount of money put toward University-Industry projects has nearly doubled and presently there are 258 IRC's across the country. According to NSERC the whole point of IRC's is to "respond to industrial needs." These Chairs, funded jointly by industry, are appointed for a five-year period, and can be renewed for another five years if "satisfactory" and industrial support continues.
Dr. Peter Rans is the director of program policy at the Nova Scotia Council on Higher Education. He says it is true that the amount of private money injected into university research has increased. He adds that governments want this and encourage it by creating incentives - even making money available for those that do.

A recent example of this is the Stora Enso Chair at Dalhousie University in Population Genetics and Molecular Breeding of Forest Trees.
Bob Fournier, who initiated the project, is Vice President of research services. He and Dalhousie president, Tom Travis, were on a trip to Sweden where they approached the forestry giant at their head offices. "We showed them that some of our capabilities and expertise at Dal could help them. In addition, we could leverage the money they contributed - put it in a proposal to the Federal government and double it."
Eventually, Stora donated $600,000 to create the Chair and Dalhousie submitted a proposal to NSERC to match it - with taxpayer's money.
The goal of the research is to focus on mapping the genetic make-up of economically important trees such as pine and spruce so as to improve productivity, that is, to create stands of the tallest, straightest, fastest growing trees which will boost profit for the company's shareholders.
Dr. Kristoff Herbinger is the project's Junior Chair. He says that since a large part of the funding comes from the company, they want something they can use in the end. "It has to benefit them."
Fournier argues that if it benefits the sponsor it also benefits the public. "If the company makes money then they stay here and provide jobs." He dismisses out of hand that direct involvement of industry in research is a bad thing.
"If it was 100% of what we do, then it would be an abomination to the university." As it is, $55 million is spent in research per year at Dalhousie and about $10 million of that comes from industry.
Fournier has no problem with the fact that taxpayers are partially subsidizing industry research. In fact, some argue they are wholly subsidized since many of the most profitable corporations in Canada pay lower rates of income tax than their lowest paid employees. Fournier rejects the implication that corporate money changes the notion of what a university can be.
"Some people think that now that industry has its nose in the tent it will definitely occupy the tent - they have no faith in the people who run this place." He says there is no cause for alarm, at least not yet.
While no limit has been set for industry money - things are being monitored, says Fournier. "If the problem emerges, then we'll deal with it. There are a lot of intelligent people concerned that it could be dangerous and at some point we may have to quantify it."

In March of this year, the Irving family of New Brunswick, owners of Irving Oil and the forest giant J.D Irving, offered Acadia University in Wolfville, Nova Scotia an "extraordinary" gift. For an undisclosed amount of money Irving offered to build botanical gardens, a campus meeting place and an environmental research centre.
Elaine Benoit, spokesperson for Acadia's office of public affairs, insists this will have no bearing on the research conducted. "We will continue to conduct the same kind of research we have in the past. It's not a buy-out, we're not selling ourselves to the family."
Ralston Saul argues that as the power of learning grew back in the second millennium, "universities became places which those with power sought to control. Initially the churches assumed this task." To undo the corrupt system now in place may be as "complex as the 18th and 19th century battle to separate church and learning."

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