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Brenda Power is a retired educator who lives in Ellsworth. She was the 1999 Distinguished University of Maine Professor.
Politics in Maine has become a national story yet again this election cycle, with the recent reporting of Susan Collins’ reported involvement in a “pay-to-play” scandal. While almost all of the reporting now is about ferreting out the details of whether Collins and her staff violated campaign financing laws, there may be another important story yet to be told. The University of Maine is at the center of this controversy, but we have little information yet about how deep its involvement runs.
The scheme is complicated. As I understand it from the story reported by ProPublica, Martin Kao representing Navatek Industries from Hawaii approached Collins’ office with an offer. They would give significant funds for her 2020 reelection campaign (both directly and through her aligned super PAC) if she would use her power on the Appropriations Committee to earmark funding for his defense industries firm. Kao then gave a series of donations to Collins (some of questionable legality), and Collins put in requests totaling $32 million for Kao’s projects that were funded.
This funding was not a traditional earmark, like funding designated specifically for a firehouse in Millinocket or a treatment facility in Saco. Instead, the funding request was written with so many detailed constraints only one firm (Kao’s) could fulfill it, ProPublica reported. Collins made sure these constraints were inserted into the appropriations request, and Kao’s company then received $32 million. It was agreed that part of this money would be used to carry out work through UMaine’s Advanced Structures and Composites Center.
Many of us have watched in dismay for years as UMaine puts ever more funding into the hard science research and infrastructure, as arts, humanities and social science programs languish and face deep cuts. Gaining outside funds for this research isn’t only a priority at UMaine, it appears to be the most important priority. The new Green Engineering and Materials building towers over the campus as a monument to its status. The campus community literally has that building in its face, glowing brightly, as it works its way through round after round of draconian cuts.
With news of this pay-to-play investigation, it’s worth asking what the pay structure is for researchers leading these initiatives at UMaine, and what incentives there are to accept any research funding that comes their way, no questions asked. This particular research funding apparently began not with a carefully written proposal based on past and ongoing research, thoroughly reviewed by other scientists. Instead, ProPublica revealed, it started with a deal between a corrupt company executive and a Senate office that reportedly used its power to exchange campaign funds for no-bid research funding.
Is it any wonder this project never led to development of technology for its intended purpose, naval defense? It did lead to the purchase of a $4.5 million home in Hawaii for Kao.
It may take a long time and many hours of hard reporting, but Mainers deserve answers about how much our flagship university is enmeshed in this scandal. Is it a one-off event, or does the university routinely accept science research funds with questionable origins rooted in backroom D.C. deals? How many research dollars have flowed like this to the university, funding that was enmeshed in the laundering of campaign funds? How much vetting of these research funds is done by UMaine?
In the end, the most important question might be this one: What is the quality of this research? Is it leading to any significant breakthroughs for real world applications? The collapse of the bridge under construction in Old Town, using technology developed by the Advanced Structures and Composites Center, is not at all encouraging.
UMaine was launched as the state’s flagship land and sea grant institution in 1865, dedicated to wide-ranging service, research, and arts. Many of us throughout the state love UMaine and helped it grow over decades. We still attend sporting events and homecomings.
It’s been heartbreaking to watch UMaine struggle recently as its priorities have changed. We deserve answers and full transparency. I believe UMaine’s place in this scandal shows just how far it has strayed from its founding mission.