Stigler opposed universities exercising moral or political stands through their corporate dealings

Evidence

The Kalven Report was one of the most famous statements on academic freedom produced during that era, and many at the University of Chicago still regard it as authoritative. In light of this, it is revealing that Stigler felt the need to issue a dissenting statement. He took exception with a passage in the report which allowed that, “in the exceptional circumstance,” the university might need to consider the compatibility of its business dealings with “paramount social values.” Stigler, in dissenting, argued: “The university should not use [its] corporate activities to foster any moral or political values because such use of its facilities will impair its integrity as the home of intellectual freedom.” — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 133

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to critiques of neoliberal university governance and the corporate university debates; also to the current ‘views on campus’ controversies.
• SEED: Essay angle: the irony that the university-as-corporation logic, which critics blame for neutering campus political voice, was itself championed by early Chicago economists as protecting intellectual freedom.