How do you silence your critics.. take away their funding. Rick Steiner, a professor at University of Alaska and an outspoken critic of the oil industry, had a $10,000 grant taken away. According to him, the University of Alaska, which like most other things in Alaska is funded in part by oil money, caved under the pressure from oil companies and proceeded to take away the grant.
Whether the reason for this is legitimate or not, Rick Steiner, in his interview with Democracy Now, does bring up some good points. Professors and other researches need to have their independence. Faculty members might be protected from firings by tenure, but now it appears that funding is a way to control the kind of research done. In the interview they mentioned that the oil industry provided $7 million to the University of Alaska to fund environmental research. If that money goes to men and women who are allowed to pursue their ideas wherever they go that’s one thing. But I have a feeling there are strings attached to that kind of funding.
