There is an interesting battle underway between the Albertan oil Corporations and the University of Alberta. The educational instittue has chosen to recognize an enemy of the oils sands through the granting of an honorary degree.
The Corporations which operate and develop oil sand operations have threatened to stop donating to the University and even requesting some funding to be rebated or stopped before completion.
Exercising Power
The Corporations are fully within their rights to decide whether to donate or not. Of course stopping previous committment or retrieving past donations raise the spectre of broken promises and there are some integrity issues with that.
Exercising your power using the money card to achieve your goal, that is stopping the recognition of David Suzuki (dyed in the wool environmentalist) is fair. After all few donations are for truly altruistic purposes, they are a means to an end.
The University considers this to be an abuse of power directly impacting their independence. As public institutions they are beholden to act according to the publics wishes.
To do this in a way that is not only fair but is perceived as fair, major institutional decisions are undertaken by the independent board of governors. In this way the faculties and research areas are isolated from these key decision (for example whom to award honorary degrees).
Under these circumstances, the Corporate donors recognize their threats are unlikely to change the decision around granting of an honorary degree to Dr. Suzuki.
Publicity
The real objective of the Corporations is actually nothing more than gaining publicity around a key issue. It is taking the opportunity to once again make a public case against allowing the environmentalists to mercilessly attack our economic well being.
After all, most stories do have two sides. So I say, speak out, make your case but do be careful how you wield your financial power, using money as a lever really works against the capitalist philosophy in the same way political maneuvering works against the environmentalists.
Chill, why can’t we all be friends.