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Some University of California faculty members are criticizing a research center affiliated with UC Riverside that they say uses corporate funding for reports “attacking proposals to improve the lives of working Californians,” the Los Angeles Times reported. The center, known as the UC Riverside School of Business Center for Economic Forecasting and Development, is not operated by university faculty and is instead run by private consulting company Beacon Economics. The firm produces economic research reports for the university but also pays UC Riverside royalty fees to publish its own reports using the center’s name.
An open letter from concerned faculty members said that “there is no faculty oversight committee for the Center for Economic Forecasting and Development, according to Beacon management” and that “none of the staff of the Center for Economic Forecasting are UCR faculty according to the UCR business school faculty directory and UCR profile directory.”
That UC Riverside collects royalty revenue from the center is “completely reprehensible” and a “blatant invitation to various forms of ethics violations,” said Dylan Rodriguez, a media studies professor at Riverside and former chair of the university’s Faculty Senate, who helped to circulate the faculty letter.
John Warren, a UCR spokesman, said the university’s agreement with Beacon Economics expired in December. Warren said UC Riverside is negotiating a new contract and “intends to continue its working relationship with Beacon.”
“The university will be vigilant in how it implements the new agreement, including for when it is appropriate for university branding to be used,” Warren said. “Allegations of misconduct are taken seriously, and there are university reporting procedures in place to receive and investigate these allegations for faculty and others.”
