May 13, 2004 | Read Time: 2 minutes
Nine major universities have asked the Ford and Rockefeller Foundations to change the antiterrorism language the funds added this year to their standard grant agreements, saying the additions are unclear and would infringe on their academic freedom.
The grant makers, both in New York, added the language in January to help prevent their money from being used to support terrorist activities, an issue the U.S. Treasury Department has raised in its investigation of terrorist finances.
The Ford Foundation has asked its grant recipients to sign a letter agreeing that they would “not promote or engage in violence, terrorism, bigotry, or the destruction of any state” and not make “sub-grants to any entity that engages in those activities.” Ford said the provision applies not only to the money it awards, but to all funds spent by groups it supports.
Similarly, the Rockefeller provision reads: “In accepting these funds, you certify that your organization does not directly or indirectly engage in, promote, or support other organizations or individuals who engage in or promote terrorist activity.”
‘Beyond the Bounds’
Provosts at the universities — Columbia, Cornell, Harvard, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Princeton, Stanford, University of Chicago, University of Pennsylvania, and Yale — sent a letter last month to the foundations outlining their problems with the provisions.
“Our central concern is that the new condition attempts to regulate universities’ behavior and speech beyond the scope of the grant — indeed, beyond the bounds of the universities,” the provosts said in the letter.
Officials at both Ford and Rockefeller said they plan to meet with the universities to resolve the situation.
“The foundation believes we can allay their concerns if we talk to them,” said Alexander Wilde, a spokesman for the Ford Foundation.
Besides the nine universities, the University of Michigan and a handful of other Ford-supported groups, which Mr. Wilde declined to name, have taken issue with the new language. But he said that the “vast majority” of grantees have approved the provision.
Ford added the requirements because of criticism it received last year for its support of Palestinian groups that sponsored anti-Israeli demonstrations and because of “heightened concern about how philanthropic money can be misused,” Mr. Wilde said.
The Rockefeller Foundatiom added its provision in response to voluntary guidelines the Treasury Department issued in 2002 to help grant makers avoid unwittingly supporting terrorist activities, said André Oliver, a Rockefeller spokesman.
As a possible solution, the provosts suggested the foundations adopt a provision similar to the one used by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, in Chicago, which the universities believe does a better job of clarifying the responsibility of its grantees.
The MacArthur provision requires grant recipients to make sure that “funds will be used in compliance with all applicable antiterrorist financing and asset control laws, regulations, rules, and executive orders” and to “take all reasonable steps to ensure” that any person or group expected to receive money is not on U.S. government lists of suspected terrorists.
