If one wonders about the pressure corporate ties to academic research can have, check out this link, which is a Huffington Post article about Toyota's relationship with Southern Illinois University. When one of SIU's professors, David Gilbert, conducted lab tests on Toyota vehicles to find out whether electronic flaws in the cars' computer systems might have been at fault for unintended acceleration, his findings did not please the automaker. When Toyota discovered that the professor was testifying before Congress in Washington, the company was quick to remind the university that "Toyota regularly contributed to the university – including a $100,000 check to the auto-tech program in late 2008 – and 'due to the outstanding reputation your automotive technology program has, we donate much more than money,' including cars." Although Professor Gilbert is protected by tenure for speaking out about his findings, apparently one of Toyota's marketing representatives who is also an SIU alum opined to the university chancellor, "'I believe he should not be an employee of our fine university.'" That use of the personal pronoun "our" seems problematic; granted, the Toyota sales rep is an alumnus of the school, but in some ways, his use of that inclusive pronoun also suggests a vaguely proprietary relationship between corporation and research institution, as if the automaker's financial and other contributions to the university meant that Toyota owned SIU (either literally or metaphorically). This is yet another example of the dangers posed by the corporatization of the university.
