Don’t Worry, Ball State, We See You Haven’t Changed When it Comes to Accepting Money That Perpetuates White Supremacy
Ball State University is no stranger when it comes to accepting large sum donations steeped in controversy.
In 2016, the Indiana school accepted a hefty donation of $3.25 million from the Charles Koch Foundation and the Schnatter Family Foundation for the creation of the Schnatter Institute for Entrepreneurship and Free Enterprise, as well as the John H. Schnatter Distinguished Professor of Free Enterprise.
UnKoch My Campus was there back then, protesting not only the acceptance of this money but also the people being interviewed for positions at the institute at Ball State who were already well integrated into the Koch network and had been working to influence government policy. Yet, at the time, school administration had no issue with taking the money.
Two years later, everything fell apart when it was reported that donor John Schnatter, a Ball State alumnus and founder of Papa John's Pizza, had used the N-word and made racist remarks on a work conference call. At the time, a collective of Black Ball State faculty published an open letter to the administration, asking them to break ties with Schnatter. “Our students, faculty, staff, alumni, and community at large are watching and taking note. They need to see this commitment manifested not only in words but also in practice. They need to see the strongest ethical stance possible taken against racism in its institutional form, in accountability to these values, and socially responsible practices. They need to see that people from diverse backgrounds are treated with dignity and respected for their intrinsic value. They need to see that the university does not traffic conversations that fail to grapple with the history of racism in all of its forms.”
In response to public pressure, Ball State University’s board of trustees removed Schnatter’s name from the institute and returned the $2 million+ donation from his family’s foundation. At the time, it seemed that perhaps the administration had heeded the powerful words of the Black faculty collective. Unfortunately, recent actions at the school have proved this to be false.
Acknowledging the racist nature of John Schnatter, and returning his donation didn’t harm the university in the long run. It recently accepted a large $6.5 million combined donation from the Menard family and the Koch Foundation, more than making up the lost Papa John money. And, in taking this financial “gift,” Ball State University showed their community at large, and their Black faculty, students, and staff, that they were fine upholding white supremacy.
Ball State may have removed Schnatter and returned the family’s money for overt white supremacy, yet the school administration has no issue accepting a large donation from the Kochs - a cloaked form of white supremacy emerging under the guise of free market economics.
We’ve reported how the Kochs uphold and advance systems of white supremacy through academic strategy, and Ball State University is just another school under their belt. However, it feels extra egregious for the school to accept this money after so publicly rebuking Schnatter. Whether the money comes from an in-your-face racist or from corporate-invested donors that use systemic white supremacy to flourish, the harm ends up being the same in the end.
We echo the words of Ball State’s Black faculty collective in 2018, when they demanded the university make changes because “They need to see this commitment manifested not only in words but also in practice. They need to see the strongest ethical stance possible taken against racism in its institutional form, in accountability to these values, and socially responsible practices.” Unfortunately, this has not happened.
Join us in emailing campus administration and relevant staff to demand that Ball State University divest from Koch donations that are mired in the systemic promotion of white supremacy and corporate greed.