UI, academy fund agree to part ways on study partnership
The UI and the Academy on Capitalism and Limited Government Fund have mutually agreed, in principle, to discontinue the agreement reached a year ago that would provide funding for teaching and research focusing on the relationship of capitalism and government. Rather than partnering with the university, the fund will become a non-profit foundation, providing grants. “Despite the good intentions of the donors and the university, there were structural incompatibilities between the fund’s operational mode and that of the university,” Chancellor Richard Herman said. Fund officials decided an independent philanthropic foundation offering grants to support programs and research is “the best way to accommodate all parties,” the group’s advisory board said in a statement. “This academy will be an independent, off-campus corporation which will undertake its grant activities in the same fashion as the numerous other foundations which already provide support to the University of Illinois,” the statement says. A committee appointed by Herman studied the agreement concluding that the fund, as set up, was not consistent with university policy. “The committee recommended a new agreement, and worked with fund officials for nearly a year to strike a deal that addressed the university’s concerns,” said Thomas Ulen, a law professor who chaired the committee. Those talks led to the fund’s decision to offer funding through a separate foundation instead. “We wish them well,” Ulen said. “It was a good faith effort on both sides and there were never any hard feelings. I don’t doubt there will be interest on this campus in the grants and some of the other activities the academy will sponsor.”
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