UBS sponsorship of UZH is not a Trojan horse
On Monday, the Zurich Cantonal Council held an extensive discussion on the controversial agreement between the University of Zurich (UZH) and UBS regarding a 100-million-franc sponsorship deal. The discussion was prompted by an interpellation from the SP.
It was not a good contract that UZH had concluded with UBS, said Moritz Spielmann (SP, Ottenbach), the first signatory of the interpellation. He said that the university had failed to demand "non-interference" from UBS. This shows that political monitoring of university sponsorship is necessary. Mattea Meyer (SP, Winterthur) even spoke of a "sell-out of freedom and democracy". Third-party funding for teaching and research needed clear regulations and regular auditing. And Res Marti (Greens, Zurich) remarked: "The UZH is not a football club where you can place advertising at will."
Dieter Kläy (FDP, Winterthur) and Johannes Zollinger (EVP, Wädenswil) saw it quite differently. They pointed out that the third-party funds of the UZH amounted to 48 million Swiss francs in 2011 and thus only accounted for 3.9 percent of the total expenditure. One could not speak of a restriction of the freedom of teaching and research. Rochus Burtscher (SVP, Dietikon) was enraged by the "eternal mistrust of the left". For him, it is perfectly legitimate for sponsors to say where their money should go. Dieter Kläy also pointed out that the sponsors' money is not managed directly by the university, but by a foundation. There are sufficient hurdles for the university to remain independent.
Create more transparency
Willy Haderer (SVP, Unterengstringen) admitted that the contract with UBS had shortcomings. The Supervisory Commission for Education and Health (ABG) had therefore demanded that the university quickly implement comprehensive guidelines for sponsoring. However, it is not acceptable to pillory unpopular contracts. The UBS sponsorship contract was not a Trojan horse, said Education Director Regine Aeppli (SP), addressing Res Marti. A gift horse had been looked very carefully in the mouth. However, she was glad that the university had made the contract public in order to dispel mistrust. In the future, it will be important to create more transparency with regard to third-party funds, Aeppli emphasized. She credited the university with having little experience with sponsoring. (SDA)
