In the wake of increasing executive action and influence by Trump-coined “special government employee” Elon Musk, the billionaire’s charity foundation’s investments in higher education institutions have come to Boston University.
Donations made by the Musk Foundation to a BU rocketry team uncovered by The Daily Free Press are igniting debates over private donorship and revealing intra-University tensions over the funding it receives.
The Internal Revenue Service 990 forms for the Musk Foundation in 2022 and 2023 included two grants made to “Boston University” for $10,000 and $15,000 each respective year. The donations were addressed to 595 Commonwealth Avenue, and each grant’s listed purpose was to “support university operations and programs.”
BU Spokesperson Colin Riley clarified in an email to The Daily Free Press that the Office of Development and Alumni Relations’s location is 595 Comm. Ave.
“Those donations were in support of and the result of a student group reaching out to the Foundation,” Riley wrote.
The donations were made to the BU Rocket Propulsion Group, an undergraduate amateur rocketry team with an extensive alumni network — many who work at the Musk-owned SpaceX.
The Musk Foundation is a private, charitable foundation that makes grants to support research and education in human space exploration, engineering and other disciplines, according to its website.
Members of the BURPG executive board did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
A spokesperson for an organization focused on donor influence, who wished to remain anonymous out of fear of retribution, said donations to universities from foundations like Musk’s are designed to “sidestep” academic freedom.
“[These donations] allow donors to control the output of their donations, as opposed to allowing faculty to maintain the integrity of their departments,” the spokesperson said. “They violate academic freedom and faculty governance.”
Caleb Farny, master lecturer in the College of Engineering and BURPG faculty advisor, said 2022 and 2023 are the only years BURPG received grants from the Musk Foundation. He said the group’s relationship was “incredibly informal,” and BURPG has “not heard further” from the foundation.
The group also receives funding through internal and external sponsors, Farny said.
Farny said BURPG alums who work at companies Musk is involved in advocated to support the team, because they are aware of engineering costs and understand BURPG is the “pipeline” for future employees.
According to Farny, the Musk Foundation donations are “relatively small” compared to other sources of BURPG funding.
BURPG members traveled to the Mojave Desert in California Wednesday morning to prepare for the launch of the team’s “Icarus” rocket.
Zain Ahmed, senior and lead ENG senator in BU Student Government, helped BURPG receive $1,386 in additional funding from StuGov.
“If the rocket [launch is] successful, it’d be the largest liquid-powered rocket made by college students in the country,” Ahmed said. “For the sake of all the ENG students, I wanted them to be able to go there and succeed.”
As the leader of the new U.S. Department of Government Efficiency, which aims to slash federal funding to promote government efficiency, Musk has sparked controversy for his involvement in sweeping cuts and mass layoffs.
“Elon Musk is a genius,” said sophomore Philip Wohltorf, a member of BU College Republicans. “However, I also believe that the gap between being a genius and being somewhat crazy is very slim.”
Wohltorf said Musk’s appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference, where he wielded a “chainsaw of bureaucracy” to represent DOGE funding cuts, was an inappropriate rhetoric display.
BU senior Sean Waddington, treasurer of BU College Democrats, said Musk’s federal involvement is a ploy to receive “further tax breaks” to enrich campaign coffers and “attack” the working class.
Nathan Phillips, a professor in the College of Arts and Sciences Department of Earth and Environment, helps lead the Boston string of weekly “Tesla Takedown,” or “Tesla Takeover,” protests against Musk. He said the U.S. is “undergoing a radical dismantling” of government.
Phillips said he knows speaking out against Musk puts a target on his back, but he would consider it “a badge of courage” if he were fired for it.
“I don’t think his Nazi salutes are going to be well received if he steps on to Boston University’s campus,” Phillips said. “If you want to have free speech, come on to campus … We’ll talk about his Nazi salutes. We’ll talk about his other despicable actions.”
Ahmed said there is a “gray area” regarding the donations to BURPG because Musk is the richest person in the world.
“There’s going to be some positive things that [Musk] does, such as promoting STEM education through the Musk Foundation,” Ahmed said. “There’s also going to be some negative and destructive things, like his misinformed approach to optimizing government through DOGE.”
Waddington said he understands BURPG needs money, but the donation ethics matter when Musk “dictates” research, because Musk “gets to decide what research gets funded, and because he likes rockets, we get to research rockets.”
Emily Ghosh, a doctoral student in ENG, worked as a propulsion materials engineer at SpaceX from June 2019 to September 2022. She said it’s “very encouraging” when foundations like Musk’s support student groups working to break into a field.
The donations are “good” as long as they are made solely for lab research, Ghosh added.
Ghosh said she is uncomfortable speaking about Musk’s recent political activity.
Phillips said he doesn’t see a problem with BURPG accepting donations from Musk in 2022 and 2023 when “Musk wasn’t out of the closet as a Nazi,” but the group would “know what they’re doing” if it accepted funding today.
American Studies Professor Mary Battenfeld is the co-president of the BU chapter of the American Association of University Professors. AAUP is one of the organizations that sued the Trump administration Feb. 3 to block its executive orders on diversity, equity and inclusion.
Battenfeld said Musk and other technology “bro-oligarchs” are different from the wealthy individuals of the 19th century — including Carnegie Mellon and John D. Rockefeller — who “did a lot of bad things but were actually very genuine in their charity.”
Musk’s donations to BURPG are a “drop in the bucket compared to what the entirety of BU’s research enterprise is suffering” following recent cuts by the National Institute of Health and National Science Foundation to research funding, Phillips said.
Phillips saw a Bluesky post Thursday urging users to check their retirement accounts and divest from any stock in Tesla or other Musk-owned companies. After digging, he found a “big chunk” of his BU retirement portfolio was invested in Tesla.
“I don’t want to be invested in the thing that I’m fighting against,” Phillips said.
Phillips’ retirement portfolio, sent to The Daily Free Press Thursday, showed his Tesla stock had a -27.94% rate of return since the first day of the calendar year. He said beyond political statements, it is a “bad money choice” to stay invested in Tesla.
BU puts funds into Fidelity, a company that manages retirement accounts and gives the employee control, Riley said.
“[The faculty member] can choose the mix that makes up their investments that make up their retirement account,” Riley said.
In protest of Musk, Phillips put lettered signage in his fourth-floor office window in CAS Wednesday. It reads, “Normalize love,” referencing a DOGE employee who resigned Feb. 6 after his X post reading “Normalize Indian hate” resurfaced.
This is a precedent for Phillips, who put signage reading “Divest” in his office window in 2021 to advocate for divestment from fossil fuels. He said the act of hanging banners in his window referenced a 1986 court case where four BU students successfully sued the University for the right to hang banners from their windows in protest of South African apartheid.
“Active resistance is throwing sand in the gears and inflicting direct economic damage on the forces that are dismantling our government,” Phillips said.
