Guilt by Association Abroad? The University of Wisconsin in Kazakhstan

[The following originally appeared on Huffington Post on September 13. It came in response to University of Wisconsin-Madison Poli. Sci. Prof Howard Schweber, who took issue with an earlier article written by Yale's Jim Sleeper. Since Steve Horn and I wrote earlier pieces from which Sleeper drew information regarding Wisconsin's dealing with the Nazarbayev regime, I thought Schweber's words demanded a riposte. -AR] 

The good professor Howard Schweber’s  recent criticism (Innocents Abroad? The University of Wisconsin in Kazakhstan) of Jim Sleeper’s piece on the questionable international dealings of a number of our major universities demands some response. Especially since he, Mr. Schweber, returned not long ago from two years at Kazakhstan’s recently launched Nazarbayev University (NU). 

Schweber actually avoided the central question of the ethics and propriety of such “partnering relationships” by our universities, all self-proclaimed bastions of the “liberal tradition,” with outright authoritarian, anything-but-democratic regimes. He did so by finessing the University of Wisconsin’s  involvement at NU, named for Kazakhstan’s “Leader of the Nation” and “President for Life”, the ex-Soviet boss, Nursultan Nazarbyev.

Pointing out that the University of Wisconsin-Madison in its involvement at the NU School of Humanities and Social Sciences is but one of ten major universities engaged at Astana, he stated that each of the partners “offer advice, consultation, and services in the form of specified deliverables based on contracts with limited terms.” He did not mention that unlike Duke, with its “brand” closely associated with the NU Graduate School of Business, or the National University of Singapore with its long-term “strategic partnership” with the NU Graduate School of Public Policy, Wisconsin as a public institution had to forge a different “fee-for-service” relationship with the Nazarbayev state, the developer of the NU.

All the fine points aside, Prof Schweber, clearly is a believer in America’s liberal “democratizing”  gospel and the accompanying mission of his home university’s “Wisconsin Idea”. And certainly, it must be granted that some NU students, busy on their way to becoming the next generation’s professional-managerial and technical elite, might indeed imbibe some of those “Western values” along the way. 

But the evidence strongly suggests that Kazakhstan, with its well-ensconced and fortified kleptocracy, its state-run development plans, and its current trajectory as a rising star in the constellation of energy-rich capitalist dictatorships, is not about to become the center of some Central Asian version of the “Arab Spring” .   

Eager to defend Wisconsin’s presence at the NU School of Humanities and Social Science and apparently convinced that it will help plant the seeds of some future liberal democratic reform, Prof. Schweber avoided discussion of the actual repressive anti-democratic and illiberal nature of the Nazarbayev regime. 

Every major international monitor of human rights, political freedoms and corruption has consisterntly criticized Kazakhstan as a major serial abuser. Human Rights Watch, Freedom House, Transparency International, Reporters Without Borders, Amnesty International, etc., and the US State Department have long chronicled the repressive and intolerant character of the Nazarbayev dictatorship. In their recent reports, they all have documented the fact that the record of abuses has actually gotten worse in the aftermath of the December, 2011 massacre of striking oil workers in the Caspian town, Zhanaozen. Occasional news stories from independent journalists confirm that reality on a regular basis.

We’re basically talking about a one party-state based on rigged elections where all authentic political opposition is systematically stifled and repressed. We’re talking about a society where the dominant media system is owned directly by Nazarbayev family members or close cronies; where any critical opposition papers and websites have been closed down, their editors and reporters beaten, jailed and fined under the nation’s all encompassing anti-defamation laws. (Laws that basically make it illegal to say anything critical of Nazarbayev or his family, or the ruling party, etc..)

We’re talking about a country where judges are hand picked by those in power; one where the broader legal system is honeycombed with corruption, and bribery is a fact of life. It’s a country in which police regularly act with impunity and those taken into custody or imprisoned are routinely subjected to physical abuse and torture. 

We’re speaking of a state that has recently stepped up its persecution and prosecution of those congregations practicing their religious faith without first registering with the proper authorities. (Such regulations, ostensibly stepped up to stem the growth of “Islamist extremism,” recently have been used to shut down Baptist congregations!) 

Prof. Schweber did not mention that the major university involvement in the creation of NU came about through the coordination of the World Bank, currently branding itself as the “Knowledge Bank”. WB “education reform” specialists, intent on coordinating the restructuring the Kazakh education system to bring it in line and integrate it with those in the West, shepherded Kazakh Ministry of Education types on a round-the-world tour of potential “partnering institutions” in 2009. 

While stopping off at Cambridge and University College of London in the UK, and crossing the Atlantic for campus visits in Boston and elsewhere, the group also stopped off in authoritarian Singapore for a visit and meetings at the National University of Singapore. Kazakhstan’s Nazarbayev and the Singapore city state’s emeritus autocrat, Lee Kuan Yew have had a long association. Lee actually encouraged the Kazakh kingpin to make English the main instructional language at NU. 

The delegation then proceeded on to Qatar, lorded over by the petrodollar drenched Bin Khalifa autocracy. There, they visited the Qatar Science and Technology Park  at “Education City” outside Doha, the home of a cluster of joint projects with US-based universities including Cornell, Georgetown, Northwestern, Texas A&M, Virginia Commonwealth and Carnegie Mellon created through World Bank assistance. It was a model in some sense of things to come in Astana.

Importantly, a number of former World Bank operatives came to occupy key positions at Naz U. Most notable has been Shigeo Katsu, currently the NU Rector. Aslan Sarinzhipov, just recently appointed by Nazarbayev to head the Kazakh Ministry of Education and Science, previously worked as the Bank’s in-country liaison before becoming a key figure in the NU’s administration. 

Another long-time World Bank hand, Dennis DeTray, was the former head of its operations in Indonesia during the latter years of the Suharto dictatorship. He subsequently became an apologist for that regime before taking a post as an adviser to Nazarbayev on the NU project. (When a high-level Kazakh delegation headed by Deputy Foreign Minister and former Nazarbayev aide Yerbol Orynbayev came to Madison in March, 2010 to finalize the first of a series of partnering contracts with Wisconsin’s then-Chancellor Biddy Martin, DeTray was there.)         

Wisconsin’s Schweber not very long after took his two year sabbatical to go forth on  Wisconsin’s mission. In his response to Jim Sleeper, he spoke of the new laws, granted by a parliament dominated by Narabyev’s Nur Otan party, which have granted NU its own “autonomy” thereby granting students and faculty “academic freedom” and freedom of expression.  He failed to mention that numerous legal protections and guarantees, already on the books, are systematically and regularly violated and abused in practice across the country.

Does this professor of political science imagine that an authentic opposition movement encouraged by the teachings of the good missionaries from Wisconsin will be tolerated?  What does he expect will happen to those who take seriously those “Western values” that he and others lecture on at NU ?   

Schweber wrote of his ability to speak of liberal values and the need for democracy openly and candidly at various fora sponsored by the national Parliament, Nazarbayev’s Nur Otan party, the Ministry of Education and Science, and other Kazahkstani universities.  As an American, he was afforded that luxury, clearly an example of “repressive tolerance” in extremis.

After all, the regime certainly would not want to generate some cause celeb and international press by possibly manhandling and bouncing out some well-intentioned Mid Western academic who happened to speak a bit too much truth to power. 

Nazarbayev & Co. at this point in time certainly is not about to alienate the US, now seen as a strategic counterweight to Kazakhstan’s Russian and Chinese neighbors and an important and growing source of direct foreign investment.  (While keeping a tight lid on things at home, Nazarbayev has gotten what he wants from each of the major powers by skillfully playing his “multi-vectored” foreign policy.) 

Overarching all, the real “partnering relationship,” not to be tampered with, is the strategic one between the energy rich, strategically located regime at Astana and those in Washington who have already defined the country as vital to short and long term US “national interest”. 

In the same period that reps from various American universities were busy setting up shop and designing “liberal” curricula and “best practice” governance at Naz. U, US military personnel were busily coordinating military-to-military programs, providing equipment (some of which was used against the strikers at Zhanaozen in 2011); and carrying out joint maneuvers. 

In much the same way that the US, in the name of “national security,” can turn a blind eye to the abuses of university-sponsoring dictatorships in the Persian Gulf and elsewhere, Uncle Sam is not about to push for meaningful reform, democratic rights and protections in Kazakhstan.  

In the meantime, those traveling from Madison intent on globalizing the gospel of some distorted “Wisconsin Idea”  can say what they want at home or while “stylin’” in Astana. In the meantime, the US strategic dalliance with the corrupt and repressive Nazarbayev regime will take continue to take precedence.

Stylin' at Naz U.: The Good Professor Schweber  takes a brief  pause while bringing "liberal values" to the Kazakhstan steppes.

The End of 'Open Records' at the UW-Madison?

-Allen Ruff and Steve Horn

[The following piece originally appeared in the Capital Times, (Madison, WI) June 5, 2013]

The University of Wisconsin-Madison has requested that the state Legislature grant it an exemption to Wisconsin's long-standing open records law. The proposed legislation, if passed, would directly limit public access to university records and sources of information and diminish independent scrutiny at a time of increasing privatization and corporate influence over the state's flagship university.

In pursuit of the exemption, either as a separate bill or via insertion in the state budget, UW-Madison officials have circulated proposed language to a list of Republican-only legislators.

The two-pager contained a lead paragraph with desired language for a bill. It also contained a range of arguments for the increased protection of “intellectual property,” primarily the growing proportion of on-campus research and development now bought and paid for by major pharmaceutical, agro-tech and other corporations.

The proposed legislation is overly broad. If passed, it would inevitably lead to abuse. It states that an “authority,” undefined at present, “may withhold data, records or information produced or collected by or for faculty or staff of public institutions of higher learning in the conduct of or as a result of study or research on commercial, scientific or technical subjects, whether sponsored by the institution alone or in conjunction with a governmental body or private concern, until such data, records or information have been publicly released, published or patented.”

The UW-Madison sponsors argue that the special provision is needed to deter the theft of valuable research before it can be patented.

Their bottom-line argument? If a corporation was to lose anticipated returns on its investment because a competitor gained access to key information through an open records request, then that funder and others would take their money elsewhere — to a private institution unconcerned with public access. Researchers would follow suit, to the detriment of the UW and the state.

Wishing to curtail the number of records requests — especially by those raising ethical concerns about specific “public-private partnerships” — the proposal’s sponsors also argue that current procedures are too cumbersome and expensive.

In the course of our recent examination of the ethically questionable relationship between  UW-Madison and the dictatorial regime in Kazakhstan, we obtained records that could easily have been denied us if the current proposed changes existed. Some of what we received, including contracts with the Kazakh regime, had to be vetted and approved by the university’s legal office before it was released. Some of the material was redacted to protect privacy and security concerns.

Clearly, the existing procedures and safeguards work well, perhaps overly so. As it exists, the UW office in charge of fulfilling requests never has, and is not about to, give away any scientific or trade secrets.

Further strictures on access to records at the still partially public, but increasingly privatized, UW-Madison will not serve the public interest.

If the details of various “public-private partnership” deals can be withheld by some “authority” based on a subjective and over-reaching interpretation of the law, then what becomes of legitimate inquiry regarding the ethics and propriety of such ventures?

If requests for information can be denied, “until such data, records or information have been publicly released, published, or patented,” then the university’s proclaimed commitment to openness, transparency and citizen access, a key tenet of the “Wisconsin Idea,” will be rendered meaningless.

The "Wisconsin Idea" Gone Bad at Kazakhstan's Nazarbayev University

By Allen Ruff and Steve Horn

[An earlier version of this piece originally appeared at Truthout on Thursday, 11 April.]

Ten major, primarily U.S.-based universities and campus-based research institutes signed contracts in 2010 to help establish and run a major “world class” university in Kazakhstan, the resource-rich Central Asia country lorded over by autocrat, Nursultan Nazarbayev.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW-Madison), beginning in late-2009, actively sought and eventually won one of those contracts. That agreement with the regime provided the go-ahead for a team of UW-Madison experts to create a School of Humanities and Social Sciences (SHSS) at Nazarbayev University (NU), named after the country’s “President-for-Life.”

Kazakhstan's "Leader of the Nation," Nursultan Nazarbayev (Photo: The Guardian)

UW-Madison, birthplace of the progressive “Wisconsin Idea,” has long prided itself as a bastion of liberal democratic values and its dedication to public service and social betterment. As such, the story of its ongoing Kazakhstan involvement stands as a case study of the contradictions inherent in the rush by today’s “global universities” eager to win clients, prestige, and income abroad from those regimes most able to pay - regardless of their nature.

Sealing the Deal

Documents acquired via a series Wisconsin Open Records Law requests show that in March-2010, an   eight member high-level delegation representing NU traveled nearly 6,000 miles from their home on the Kazakh steppes to attend a brief ceremony at then-Chancellor Carolyn “Biddy” Martin’s Office atop the UW-Madison's famed Bascom Hill.

Representing the country’s authoritarian regime, the team had come to Madison for the formal signing of an initial contract committing UW-Madison to prepare a feasibility study for the creation of a social science and humanities program for the then-dubbed “New University of Astana.” The proposed university - already projected to become a major Central Asia research hub - was at the time under construction at a estimated cost of $2 billion at the country’s showcase capital.

Central atrium at Nazabayev University (Photo: Jonathan Kucera)

In Madison to witness the signing as head of was Kazakhstan Deputy Foreign Minister and former Nazarbayev aide, Yerbol Orynbayev. The Western-trained diplomat and former in-country liaison for the World Bank in Kazakhstan, Aslan Sarinzhipov, in his capacity as acting president and CEO of the “New University” came to sign the contract. “Biddy” Martin fixed her signature to the agreement along with the Nazarbayev insider at the March 4 ceremony.

 

UW Chancellor Martin seals initial deal as Dean Gilles Bousquet (L) and Dep. PM Yerbol Orynbayev look on. (Photo: UW-Madison Division of International Studies)

A two-page background briefing prepared for Martin in advance of the gathering noted the work underway at Astana to establish the NU as an “English-language university based on the American model.”

After listing the names of visiting delegation, that backgrounder gave a cursory five-sentence sketch of the country. It simply described Kazakhstan as a former Soviet republic populated mainly of Turkic, Russian and German speakers with major gas and oil reserves in its Caspian Sea region. The description also noted Nazarbayev’s upcoming 70^th birthday, without giving any indication of the brutal nature of his dictatorial regime. 
 

While the sum offered up by the NU suitors for that feasibility study totaled a mere $100,000, the UW-Madison representatives involved viewed it as the beginning of a mutually-beneficial and potentially-lucrative relationship. For instance, in a mid December 2009 e-mail promoting the opportunity to then Dean of International Studies Giles Bousquet, the UW's point-man on the project, Central Asia studies professor Uli Schamiloglu pointed that the NU effort, with annual faculty salaries projected at $55 million and an annual operating budget ranging upwards of $20 million or more, could become a serious revenue generator for Madison.

Completed in July 2010, that initial proposal paved the way for a 594-page detailed strategic plan, submitted in June 2011, for a state-of-the art School of Humanities and Social Studies based upon UW-Madison’s “best practices.”

An additional “phase two” “Strategic Planning and Assessment Program” went into operation in Oct. 2011. This entailed numbers of teleconference meetings by various working groups and multiple exchanges of visitors to Astana and Madison over the next several months.

Nazarbayev University's Wisconsin-designed SHSS opened for business in Sept. 2011. A contract for “phase three” was signed in Dec. 2012. The regular back-and-forth flow of UW-Madison faculty and administrative consultants continues to this day.

Onlookers and Go-Betweens

Among those present for the signing of the initial UW-NU agreement was Gilles Bousquet, at the time Dean of the UW’s Division of International Studies, Director of the UW-Madison’s International Institute and Vice Provost for Globalization. Bousquet now serves as the Interim Chancellor at University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire.

Former UW Dean of  Division of International Studies, Gilles Bousquet. 
(Photo:  UW Divison of International Studies)

“We are honored and delighted to be selected by Kazakhstan as a partner as they embark on establishing a new university to bring the benefits of education to their people and the entire region in the tradition of the Wisconsin Idea," an article covering the event from the UW-Madison press office quoted him as saying

Bousquet subsequently traveled to Astana in late-June 2011 for a two-day conclave. While there, he was presented to the then-Prime Minister, now Nazarbayev’s current Chief-of-Staff and Chairman of NU’s Board of Trustees, Karim Massimov.

 

UW's  Bousquet with Kazakh Prime Minister and Nazarbayev insider, Karim Massimov (Photo: Tengri News)

Interviewed upon his return about the developing UW-Madison relationship, Bousquet emphasized, “the benefits that Wisconsin’s business community can derive from such [a] relationship.”

Also accompanying the Kazakh delegation was Dennis De Tray. The World Bank’s Country Director in Indonesia during the late-1990s, the final years of the Suharto dictatorship, De Tray subsequently became an apologist for that murderous, kleptocratic regime.

In recent years a private “development contractor” and Pentagon consultant in US-occupied Iraq and Afghanistan, he now sits as Chairman of NU’s “International Advisory Committee,” a consigliere for the regime’s operatives doing business with various university partners, UW-Madison among them.

Consigliere Dennis De Tray with new boss Nazarbayev at Naz U. ceremony (Photo: KazPravda)

Also present at the 2010 signing: Uli Schamiloglu, Chair of the UW-Madison Central Asian Studies Program and Associate Director of the Center for Middle East Studies. A central figure from its inception, he played the major role in forging the relationship.
 

  

Uli Schamiloglu, Gilles Bousquet, Dennis DeTray & Biddy Martin at March, 2010 NU signing. (Photo: Jeff Miller)

Tapped to head the feasibility study, he became “team leader” of the “Nazarbayev University Project,” the main liaison with the NU’s representatives, among them Dennis De Tray.

Schamiloglu lead a five-member UW-Madison contingent to Astana in April 2010. Besides visiting their NU counterparts and the nearly-completed campus, the group received a dignitary’s welcome at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. They also toured the Ministry of Education and met with a group described as Nazarbayev’s “apparatus.” The next junket stops: the country’s rubber stamp Senate and the headquarters of Nur Otan ("Light of the Fatherland"), Nazarbayev’s ruling party. They also conferred with the US Ambassador, Richard Hoagland.

Schamiloglu and Cynthia Williams, Director of External Relations in the UW’s Division of International Studies, flew to Astana in June 2010 to attend the official opening ceremony of NU, personally lorded over by Nazarbayev.

Alongside representatives from the other major university partners, they also attended a private audience with Nazarbayev in which he described his “Strategy 2020” for economic growth through accelerated industrialization and infrastructure development. 
 

Nazarbayev (c.) with NU international partners. Dennis De Tray to his right; UW’s Uli Schamiloglu,at rear right. (Photo: KazPravda)

A duo from each of the partnering institutions – among them reprepresentatives from Duke, Carenegie Mellon, the University of Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh, the University College of London and the National University of Singapore – also signed a mutually vetted “Principles of Collaboration” that, among other things, listed university autonomy, academic freedom, transparency, integrity and diversity as institutional goals.

Williams, upon her return, expressed the hope that the UW’s involvement in the project “can help spread the values of the Wisconsin Idea” by “inspiring Nazarbeyev University to go beyond being an ivory tower and instead to use its knowledge to serve all the people of the country in relevant ways.”

Others would continue to speak of the “Idea” as a model and inspiration for the venture. Aslan Sarinzhipov - presumably learning of the tradition via Schamiloglu and translating it as the “Wisconsin Way” referenced it as such in his UW-Madison correspondence.

The Unspoken Problem

While UW-Madison team members involved in the ongoing project have continually spoken of the Kazakhstan partnership as a logical global extension of the “Wisconsin Idea,” none have commented or publicly raised concerns about the repressive nature of Nazarbayev’s regime.

Larger than Western Europe and four times the size of Texas, the former Soviet Republic shares a 4,000-mile border with Russia, a 1,400-mile frontier with China. The republic's last Soviet era head, Nazarbayev assumed leadership of the nation in 1991 and has remained in power since. 

Located at the heart of the Asian land mass, the country contains vast amounts of oil, natural gas, uranium, and rare-earth minerals. As such, it has been defined by U.S. economic and strategic planners as vital to “national interest,” despite an atrocious human rights record that actually has worsened since the UW-Madison joined the consortium of prominent universities currently “partnering” at the new university.

Strategically located, resource-rich Kazakhstan

In 2010, the country's rubber stamp parliament passed a law naming Nazarbayev “Leader of the Nation.” The new enactment not only made him immune from prosecution and seizure of his assets for the rest of his life, but also provided him with ipso facto veto power and ultimate authority.  

Critics have characterized his ruling oligarchy as an outright kleptocracy, one that has siphoned off billions to Nazarbayev and his immediate circles. Corruption and bribery at all levels of government, the judiciary included, have long been considered the modus operandi in the country.

A 2012 listing of the Kazakhstan’s 50 wealthiest individuals, holding a combined estimated wealth of $24 billion, included four of Nazarbayev’s immediate family members -- two daughters, a son-in law and a grandson -- as well as his minister of defense and environment minister. The average monthly wage, meanwhile, continues to hover at $670.

The U.S. State Department’s 2012 survey on Kazakhstan’s “rampant and diverse” human rights violations cited "severe limits on citizens’ rights to change their government," the clampdown on freedom of expression, and a lack of judicial independence and rule of law, "especially in dealing with pervasive corruption…."

Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have long criticized the regime for its violations of international standards regarding workers’ rights, political repression, police impunity, and intimidation and torture of those arrested and imprisoned.

The mistreatment of immigrants, exploitation of child labor and human trafficking also continue to be documented. Kazakhstan also recently revised its existing codes requiring that all religious groups register with the state. Those unregistered or denied a permit to practice their faith have come under increased repression in the past year.

Transparency International in 2012 ranked the country as “not free” while Freedom House gave it a worsening “democracy score” of 6.54 (with 1 representing the highest level of democratic progress and 7 the lowest.)

In an interview following his July 2011 visit to Astana, Gilles Bousquet spoke of how the UW-Madison’s world-wide partners looked to Madison to educate “leaders who will have an impact and help change the world, like the thousands of UW-Madison graduates who have joined the Peace Corps over the decades…”

A few months later, in late-2011 the Peace Corps abruptly removed its 117 volunteers from the country following several sexual assaults and reported instances of harassment by the KNB, the KGB-styled state intelligence service.

The “Zhanaozen Massacre”

Three months after NU and its Wisconsin-created SHSS opened, on Dec. 16, 2011 Kazakhstan state security forces opened fired on striking oil workers in the Caspian Sea oil company town of Zhanaozen.

According to the official government account, 15 died and upwards of 70 were wounded. Unofficial casualty counts ran much higher, numbering into the hundreds, and many more were detained and routinely beaten while in custody as the government blacked out communications from the region.

Dead striker in Zhanozen, Dec. 2011 (Photo:  Exiled Online)

In the immediate aftermath of the strike, the regime not only held a mass show trial and imprisoned strike leaders, but also jailed attorneys who came forward to assist the detained and opposition political activists protesting the repression. 
 

Western academics employed at NU at the time of the “Zhanaozen Massacre” might not have had any clue about the situation. After all, Nazarbayev family members or cronies have long controlled or own the dominant media. Independent journalists are regularly subjected to fines and criminal charges for publishing “defamatory” reports regarding Nazarbayev his family or leading government officials.

Critical reporters have also been jailed, harrassed and physically attacked, while offices of independent newspapers and websites, closely monitored by the state, continue to be shut down. The regime banned dissident newspaper Respublika in Dec. 2012, along with the small opposition party, Alga.

The “Nazarbayev Idea”

In October 2009, Kazakh Deputy Prime Minister Orynbayev’s Office sent letters to a number of American universities announcing the establishment of “a new flagship university with the highest international standards… in partnership with a number of leading international universities.”

According to official state sources, the idea for the new school originated with President Nazarbayev. The letter, utilizing the “knowledge bank” language of World Bank "education reform" advisers already fully engaged in the country, spoke of the goal of creating a “knowledge based society” to assure sustainable economic growth. In the letter, Orynbayev requested an early-November meeting to discuss “partnering” opportunities.

According to a conversation with Cynthia Williams, the Kazakhs expressed a desire to meet with Chancellor Martin. Reluctant to schedule such a meeting on short notice with limited information, Williams asked Uli Schamiloglu if he would be interested in forming a group to greet the delegation. 
 

UW International Studies' Cynthia Williams, NU partners banquet, Astana, June 2011 
(Photo:  UW-Madison Division of International Studies)

Schamiloglu met with a single Kazakh representative over dinner on Nov. 4, after a larger meeting was cancelled due to a flight delay. The Kazakh envoy expressed a primary interest in partnering with the UW-Madison's biotechnology programs, but Schamiloglu introduced the idea of the UW-Madison creating a humanities and social-science focused “liberal arts” effort at Astana.

Things moved quickly thereafter.

Schamiloglu, viewing a possible Kazakhstan project as “the opportunity of a life time,” actively promoted the idea to his superiors on Bascom Hill, among them the Dean of the College of Letters and Science, Gary Sandefur, and International Programs head Bousquet.

UW-Madison wasted little time in submitting a “letter of intent” in Jan. 2010 signed by the Sandefur and Bousquet.

In Feb. 2010, Aslan Sarinzhipov and then- “New University” Vice President, Kadisha Dairova - today both members of NU’s Executive Council - toured the UW-Madison campus and liked what they saw.

The contract for the feasibility study was hastily drawn up, vetted by a UW-Madison legal team, and signed on March 4, 2010. The first UW-Madison team arrived in Astana on April 24, 2010. In June 2010, that five-member team and Williams attended a Washington, DC “partners’ meeting” and Williams and Schamiloglu attended the NU opening ceremonies in Astana later that month.

Comprised of over than 20 faculty, administrative staff, and administrators, the full UW-Madison team  planned whole departments, detailed curricula, and a full battery of courses. Administrative staff also submitted plans for a Registrar’s and Admissions Offices, while faculty from the UW-Madison School of Library Science prepared detailed designs for the layout of the NU library and its collections.

The intent, it appeared, was to implant some semblance of UW-Madison at NU.

The “Idea” 

As part of its NU pitch, the authors of the original feasibility study noted that “…the UW-Madison is guided by the ‘Wisconsin Idea’…” and that, “through the Nazarbayev University project, the UW-Madison is seeking to extend the “Wisconsin Idea” to Kazakhstan and the world…”
 

The “Idea” came about in response to the abuses of unimpeded economic power and political corruption during the late 19^th century “Age of the Robber Barons,” an era void of social protections and increasing social upheaval caused by the abuses of unrestrained industrial and financial might.

Idea legislation and policies proposed by progressive UW-Madison faculty brought about workers’ protections, improved practices in agriculture and rural life, environmental safeguards and public health standards. Political reforms broadened the scope of democracy by rooting out corruption, graft and behind-the-scenes statehouse corporate influence-peddling.

In 2012, as various UW-Madison faculty, staff, and administrators came and went from Astana, the university officially celebrated the 100-year anniversary of the “Idea,” articulated in the mission statement of the university, to “embody, through its policies and programs, respect for, and commitment to, the ideals of a pluralistic, multiracial, open and democratic society.”

One anniversary panel on April 26 of that year, featured John Witte, an accomplished political science professor, public policy maven and grandson of the UW’s renowned Edwin Witte. Edwin embodied the “Wisconsin Idea,” going from Madison to Washington, DC during Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal to become the “father of Social Security.” 
 

Two weeks before the 2012 forum, a UW-Madison press release announced Witte was retiring from his 35-year stint in Madison. That release further announced he was departing for Kazakhstan to become Dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at Nazarbayev University. 

 

From Madison to Astana: UW’s John Witte (Photo: UW-Madison)

Witte had already had been to Astana as part of the initial project team. He made a second journey there in Dec. 2011 to scope out his new campus digs and to present a dusted off paper on Milwaukee’s voucher and charter schools to his future NU colleagues.

On the eve of the November 2012 U.S. Presidential election, Witte joined UW-Madison political scientist Howard Schweber, on leave and teaching in Astana, at a campus forum on what another President Barack Obama term or a Mitt Romney victory could mean for Kazakhstan.

While Schweber suggested that a Romney election would not bode well for Kazakhstan, Witte was quoted as stating,

"Kazakhstan… absolutely critical to the world… is a stable democracy that will enhance this country as well as the United States’ goals. It is also a country of peace, stability, and prosperity. All of these things the United States will benefit from.

Some of our companies are already here. I think that they will benefit. And also, to be honest, I think that there is a greater free-market spirit here in Kazakhstan than there would be in the Democratic Party of the United States. So I think that in fact that private initiative would be well-received here. And that private initiative is not the hallmark of the Obama administration."

A month later while serving as acting NU Vice Provost, Schweber spoke at a conference on the institution of the presidency and its importance in the transition to democracy. The state-controlled press reported the event under the headline, “Kazakhstan is not ready for presidential-parliamentary rule: Vice-Provost of Nazarbayev University.”

The official media report quoted Schweber as suggesting that while the office of the presidency should be separated from any specific individual as the country moved toward democracy, “probably, Kazakhstan is not ready for this transition yet.”

Stylin' in Astana, 2012: UW Poli Sci Prof. and  Naz. U acting Provost Howard Schweber

“Academic Freedom”

In his July, 2011 UW interview, Gilles Bousquet mentioned NU was the country’s first university to guarantee academic freedom “in the law.”

As if to assuage concerns and circumvent criticism, the regime’s rubber-stamp parliament passed specific legislation, signed into law by Nazarbayev in early 2012, granting “autonomy” and “academic freedom” to NU faculty and staff.

One line in the new law simply defined the “principle of academic freedom” as “independence of the University… in defining and selection of educational programs, forms and methods of implementation of education activities, and the directions of conducting scientific research.”

The enactment enshrining “autonomy” and “academic freedom” also granted ultimate authority over the University, its feeder Intellectual Schools and its specially-created corporate-funded endowment to a “Supreme Board of Trustees” chaired by Nazarbayev and comprised entirely by insiders.

The meaning of the “academic freedom,” usually understood as an implicit, if not always explicit right of faculty and students to write and speak freely inside and outside the walls of the academy without fear of repercussion has been subtly nuanced by NU. 
 

The “guiding principle” dealing with “Autonomy and Academic Freedom,” states that the University will,

[E]nsure independence and collegiality in management and decision making based on democratic principles and personal responsibility of each individual involved; guarantee academic freedom of teachers and researchers within their research and educational activities. (Emphasis ours)

Implicit is a clear message that faculty and staff must take care not to speak beyond the confines of their respective disciplines - or else.

The Big Picture

The ongoing “partnership” between the UW-Madison and the Kazakhstan dictatorship’s “world class” university is far from exceptional. Every major U.S. university has joined in the highly competitive international scramble for a piece of the globalized “knowledge economy” pie, often times served up by far from democratic regimes rich in resources and strategic value.

UW-Madison’s “partnering relationship” with Nazarbayev University serves as but one example, among numerous others, of the expanding international role of today’s global universities as multinational corporations driven primarily by market concerns. In that capacity, such elite globalized "institutions of higher learning" continue to play an ever evolving function as servants of imperial power reproducing and expanding the existing economic and political order  .