Guilt by Association fallacies and Academic Ethics

1) Universities accept private money for buildings, professorships, and other uses.

2) Little of this comes without normative implications and either explicit or implicit quid quo pro.

3) This has been the case for centuries, and in fact is the oldest model of academic funding (think Phillip of Macedonia).

I have recently been made aware of the political interest in universities that receive private funding. Considering that university professor's emails are public documents, we have plenty of evidence about what discussions were taking place about accepting money from private donors.

Does anything actually contribute to a substantial claim of ethical violation? No.

However, that truth seems to easy to dismiss in the age were scandal and the whiff of guilt is enough to start political movements.

It makes me very sad that academia stoops so low as to be susceptible to innuendo.

Being both a large oil refiner and a fan of free-markets is ipso facto proof of ethical corruption. I struggle even to care about logic that is so flawed, but yet it fully depresses me.