Mitchell Langbert is a business professor at Brooklyn College who also happens to be a libertarian. He’s not impressed with the school’s decision to turn down a handsome donation just because it was offered by the Kochs.

Colleen Flaherty of Inside Higher Ed reported.

Not Interested in Koch Money

Conventional wisdom says you shouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth – unless, of course, it’s a Trojan horse. That’s the somewhat contradictory dynamic at play in a string of recent controversies involving grants and possible grants from brothers Charles G. and David H. Koch. The libertarian philanthropists have earned both praise and ire for their Tea Party-friendly politics and their extensive donations to higher education causes, which critics say come with too many strings. Others say the brothers are generous and simply insistent that their donations be put to best use.

In the most recent case, a professor business at Brooklyn College of the City University of New York says that his institution squandered an opportunity to engage the Charles G. Koch Foundation about a multimillion-dollar grant for fear of blowback from the college’s liberal faculty.

“The foundation didn’t make any kind of commitment, but they were certainly entertaining these kinds of things,” said Mitchell Langbert, a libertarian associate professor of business who pursued the possible Koch grant.

At a healthy institution, Langbert continued, “if there’s some possibility of obtaining outside resources, the administration will support it. They will sit down with you and encourage proactive, creative problem-solving that will facilitate the acquisition of the resources.”

He added: “You wouldn’t think the administration would act in a devious way and develop a political stance.”