Jim Vermette, the 70-year-old former president of the University of Illinois Alumni Association who founded The Academy on Capitalism and Limited Government Fund, grew up in poverty. The youngest of 14 children, he said he has personally seen how government programs keep people in poverty by providing food stamps and welfare checks. He said from his experiences, competition is more efficient than the government can ever be.

“We worked our way out of it without the help of the government,” Vermette said. “(The fund) I think it’s been evolving over a long period of time. For me it’s probably a 25- to 30-year deal wondering, for example, why we still have people in poverty.”

The fund has been criticized across the nation as an attempt to set up a conservative think-tank that will influence teaching jobs and curriculum at the University.

“I’m from a background showing that (private competition) can work,” Vermette said. “I believe our system is the greatest ever devised by mankind, and let’s study the good and the bad.”

A lack of transparency throughout the fund is the main contention some faculty have with the fund, said Nicholas Burbules, senate executive committee chair for the Urbana-Champaign Senate.

“So far, at least, they have been acting as if they are going to be enacting propositions or sponsoring proposals for what the money is going to be used for,” he said.

At Thursday’s U-C Senate meeting there was a proposed resolution to retain some of these powers members feel are in jeopardy, according to The Daily Illini. The resolution was tabled to a later meeting.

Jim Gobberdiel, director of communications for the foundation, said there is a false impression of the foundation’s relationship to the fund.

“The only thing the foundation is involved in is we helped set up the endowment fund for this particular group of donors, just like we would any other donor,” Gobberdiel said.

The University of Illinois Foundation is a private fundraising arm of the University with the sole purpose of monitoring monetary gifts and endowments. The fund will donate money to the University through the foundation.

According to the fund’s brochure, it plans on operating in tandem with the University and the foundation.

“An advisory board will be established to prescribe funding policy and procedures,” the brochure reads. “The advisory board will be selected from scholars, alumni and other individuals … The Board will, with the concurrence of the Urbana-Champaign campus chancellor, make funding decisions and the U of I Foundation will manage the investment of gifts contributed to the academy fund.”

However, Burbules said the publicly made intentions of the fund have not always been consistent with the statements made in the brochure.

Those concerned about the University’s future worry the fund is trying to circumvent the usual processes for establishing professorships and classes, Burbules said. Vermette, acting president of the fund, said he is not sure why so many have had this impression.

“This was never even a consideration for us,” Vermette said. “We want to get the best possible faculty advice we can.”

He also said he is not sure where the stigma of being a conservative organization came from.

“I’m a libertarian, first of all,” he said. “I would think more of us are libertarian than conservative.”

Chancellor Richard Herman has set up an ad hoc advisory committee to oversee the projects funded by this endowment. This committee will make sure donors do not decide the specific uses of donated funds, Burbules said.

Individuals can donate money to any college or specific area they want or endow any type of chair. However, the donor does not get to choose the person to hold the chair position; that is the job of the University, he said.

“The campus has said we’re happy for the donations. We’re grateful for the support,” Burboles said. “But donors do not get to decide the use of funds in this way.”