From: brewnoser2@gmail.com   
      
   And so they had to look to *private* monies to advance research, training and   
   student scholarships.  Look who was quick - and happy - to step in.  On their   
   conditions . . . .   
   ______________________________________   
   CBC Investigates - CBC News Posted: Nov 02, 2015   
      
      
   How the University of Calgary's Enbridge relationship became controversial   
      
   'Most damningly it smacks of us being apologists for the fossil fuel   
   industry,' one academic warned   
      
   Joe Arvai's tenure at the University of Calgary ended brusquely in July 2012   
   after the rising academic star balked at leading a new research institute that   
   he felt would be perceived as little more than a corporate mouthpiece for   
   Canada's largest    
   pipeline company.   
      
   But Arvai is not the only professor to leave the university over concerns its   
   relationships with the oil industry were too cozy, a CBC investigation has   
   found.   
      
   Former dean Leonard Waverman warned an academic to stop questioning the   
   relationship with Enbridge because 'if this goes belly up my ass is on the   
   line'.   
      
   Emails obtained from a freedom of information request suggest a pattern of   
   corporate influence during the bungled attempt to establish a new research   
   centre that cost the university top level academic talent and its Haskayne   
   School of Business upwards of    
   a million dollars in corporate sponsorship.     
      
   The story of the Enbridge Centre for Corporate Sustainability covers a short   
   and troubled two-and-a-half years that ended in the fall of 2014.   
      
       U of C staff suspected Enbridge wanted publicity in Michigan   
      
   In that time, documents obtained by the CBC reveal a university bending over   
   backward to accommodate the apparent public relations ambitions of a corporate   
   patron.   
      
   Along the way, concerns about academic independence, the role of university   
   research and the credibility of the researchers were dismissed.     
      
   Fraught from the start   
      
   In the beginning, the Enbridge Centre looked like a coup for the U of C, its   
   business school and university president Elizabeth Cannon.   
       
   To establish the centre, Enbridge pledged $2.25 million over a 10-year period.   
      
   More important than the relatively modest sum, at least by oil patch   
   standards, was the potential for more funding down the road.   
      
   A pipeline operator and one of Canada's biggest companies, Enbridge has   
   traditionally maintained closer ties to the Edmonton-based University of   
   Alberta.   
      
   For the U of C, a new Enbridge-sponsored research centre represented a step   
   towards establishing its own direct relationship with a key industry player.   
      
   The pairing, though, was fraught from the start, and one of those who felt   
   that way was Joe Arvai, the young academic - a rising star in the area of   
   organizational decision-making - who had been brought in to head the new   
   venture.   
      
   For a young academic, Arvai's march through the academic ranks since   
   graduating with his doctorate in 2001 had been a dream scenario.   
      
   In 10 years, he moved from being an assistant professor at Ohio State   
   University to becoming a full professor and the U of C's Svare chair in   
   applied decision research.   
   Joe Arvai UCalgary   
      
   Over that time, he was on Barack Obama's energy advisory group during the 2008   
   U.S. presidential campaign, Stanford named him a Leopold Leadership fellow and   
   he also worked for international agencies such as NASA, the U.S. Environmental   
   Protection Agency'   
   s Science Advisory Board and the International Energy Agency.   
      
   From the outset, though, Enbridge's hands-on approach to the new centre   
   troubled Arvai, according to the email trail.   
      
   *Beyond naming rights, Enbridge sought to influence board memberships,   
   staffing and the type of students that would be considered for awards, the   
   emails show.*   
      
   The company hired its own public relations firm to publicize the centre's   
   launch, and also wanted "customized opportunities" for Enbridge executives and   
   clients to meet with researchers at the U of C's Haskayne School of Business.   
      
   Enbridge also expected the U of C would form a partnership with a university   
   in Michigan in what some have suggested was an attempt to help recuperate its   
   battered reputation in the state after a broken oil pipeline spilled millions   
   of litres into the    
   Kalamazoo River.   
      
   In a Jan. 3, 2012 email to Leonard Waverman, the dean of the Haskayne School   
   of Business at the time, Arvai wrote: "I am not sure what we are signing up   
   for.   I have the impression that Enbridge sees the centre as a PR machine for   
   themselves, whereas I    
   see it as an academic research centre.   
      
   "In the latter case, it's likely that finds of academic work in the centre   
   will not, at times, paint industry -- including Enbridge -- in the best light.   
   I'm not sure that Enbridge understands this."   
      
   The dean responded that he did not understand Arvai's concerns.   
      
   At one point the dean told Arvai in a voicemail message, "If this goes belly   
   up my ass is on the line and I won't feel happy with you either on this."   
      
   Waverman, who left the U of C near the end of 2012 to become dean of   
   McMaster's DeGroote School of Business, declined an interview request. Arvai   
   also chose not to comment on the advice of legal counsel.   
      
      
   'Contrived relationship'   
      
   The benefits to Enbridge in championing this new centre seemed straightforward.   
      
   A series of industry pipeline spills were not doing the company any favours.   
   If the centre could help to win hearts and minds for its existing operations   
   or a major new project like the Northern Gateway pipeline, which was grinding   
   through a    
   controversial regulatory review and months of contentious public hearings,   
   then presumably it would be a few million dollars well spent.   
   Media placeholder   
      
   When viewed through the lens of the outrage caused by oil spilling into a   
   pristine Midwest river - one of the largest inland oil spills in U.S. history   
   -- a partnership between the U of C and Central Michigan University, which   
   some would argue makes    
   little sense on paper, becomes much more understandable.   
      
   At the same time, the prospect of so nakedly serving corporate interests   
   seemed to appall Arvai.   
      
   "My strong concern is that people will view the relationship with CMU as   
   somewhat contrived," Arvai wrote in a March 1, 2012 email to Dan O'Grady,   
   Enbridge's national manager for community partnerships and investment.   
      
   "To be blunt, some will view this as a 'payoff' of some sort to CMU in the   
   aftermath of the spill."   
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)