Student organization petitions acceptance of ‘unethical’ donations

West Virginia University's Sierra Student Coalition has acquired more than 1,000 signatures since beginning its petition two months ago asking the University to refuse donations from controversial donors.

The petition stemmed from a $1 million donation to WVU from coal executives Bob Murray and Don Blankenship.

Fours leaders from the SSC presented the petition to University President James P. Clements Wednesday.

They met for 10 minutes, and Calvin Smith, outreach director for the SSC, said Clements understood the organization's concerns and showed willingness to continue talks.

WVU spokesperson Dan Kim said Clements will meet with the organization again. He added WVU's College of Engineering and Mineral Resources negotiated the gift, and the WVU Foundation accepted it.

"The donations are given to the foundation," Kim said. "It really is a matter for the foundation in terms of accepting or working donations."

Bill Nevin, director of communications for the foundation, said while the University and foundation work closely together, the foundation is a separate entity.

Gift acceptances are decided on a case-by-case
basis, he said.

The University wouldn't accept donations from terrorist organizations or criminal organizations, Smith said, so it shouldn't from two men who are "criminally negligent."

"We just want our school to set a good examples for our students, make money in ways that are ethical, fund research in ways that are ethical," Smith said. "If West Virginia University is going to go on doing things like that, who's to say nobody else is going to do since West Virginia University is such an esteemed institution."

Smith asked WVU's Student Government Association to help achieve administrative backing.

"They haven't told me what they intend to do," he said. "But they understood my concern just like the president."

SGA Vice President Whitney Rae Peters said Smith approached the Board of Governors at a meeting in November, and the BOG had many opinions on the donation.

"I've talked to some students who seem to think as long as the University is getting money from donors, it's not really bad for us to receive it as long as students are benefitting from it," Peters said.

But the BOG is looking for more information on the donation process and the background of the companies. SGA Gov. Paul Kast and Gov. Abby Sobonya volunteered to send e-mails out over winter break.

"I want to find out more about it," Kast said. "I took this on because I wanted to represent the student body best as possible."

Murray is president of Ohio-based Murray Energy Corporation and owner of Utah's Crandall Canyon Mine, where a series of collapses in August 2007 killed six miners and three would-be rescuers. The federal Mine Safety and Health Administration fined Murray $1.6 million for violations investigators say directly contributed to the miners' deaths. Blankenship is chief executive of Virginia-based Massey Energy Company, which has been the target of multiple protests this year over mountaintop removal mining.

"The Sierra Club's agenda, of course, is to outlaw coal," said Massey spokesman Jeff Gillenwater, adding the company is proud of its relationship with WVU and its ability to fund scholarships.

But Smith disagreed, saying the Sierra Club wants to promote the use of renewable energy and to mine less coal, not outlaw it.

"It's a flat-out lie," he said.

The organization wants the chair, named for Bob Murray, to be named after the dead Crandall Canyon miners.

"Who are you going to honor, the rich executive involved in the scandal or the people who made the sacrifice and died in the tragedy?" Smith said.

Smith wants the University to publicly announce it won't receive money from those who have been criminally negligent. He thinks his demands are realistic.

"The University has all the control. They decide who they affiliate with, and they can certainly decide to not receive money from companies," he said. "We undoubtedly understand we're in a period of economic hardships, but it's not like our school needed it. School would still be running if they hadn't given it."

 

The AP contributed to this report.