Oil billionaire Harold Hamm.
Oil tycoon Harold Hamm has been very generous to the University of Oklahoma. In 2011, he
donated $20 million to create the Harold Hamm Oklahoma Diabetes Center at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center.
“This is the largest single gift in the history of the Health Sciences Center,” Mr. Boren said. “Added to their previous support, Harold and Sue Ann Hamm have provided more than $30 million to help us create an internationally top-ranked, university-based center for diabetes research and clinical care.
Applaudable, no doubt. But, just a few years later, Harold Hamm was less-than-pleased when researchers at the Oklahoma Geological Survey began to publish findings linking tracking and the dramatic rise in earthquakes occurring in Oklahoma. From
Bloomberg.com:
"Mr. Hamm is very upset at some of the earthquake reporting to the point that he would like to see select OGS staff dismissed," wrote Larry Grillot, the dean of the university's Mewbourne College of Earth and Energy, in a July 16, 2014, e-mail to colleagues at the university. Hamm also expressed an interest in joining a search committee charged with finding a new director for the geological survey, according to Grillot's e-mail. And, the dean wrote, Hamm indicated that he would be "visiting with Governor [Mary] Fallin on the topic of moving the OGS out of the University of Oklahoma."
And that's not all. He was very interested in personally finding replacements for OGS personnel:
Now, for their part, OU officials appear to have handled this professionally, despite their cozy relationship with Hamm. They never informed the OGS staff of Hamm's meddling attempts, never fired any of the researchers and did not include Harold Hamm on the search committee. From OU President David Boren:
"The facts speak for themselves," Boren said. "No OGS staff member has been terminated or threatened with termination. No research has been stopped or modified. An independent search for the OGS Director has been conducted, and a distinguished graduate of Harvard has been selected. The University has more than once expressed its total commitment to academic freedom in this matter."
Nonetheless, Hamm appears to have OU President Boren on speed dial. You can read the full report, including more details on the Boren-Hamm meetings, at
Bloomberg.com