Here is more from Politico:
MORE DISCONTENT AT BROOKINGS: Employees of the Brookings Institution have sent another anonymous letter to the think tank’s trustees complaining about the management of the organization by its President Cecilia Rouse, Daniel reports.
— “After one year of her tenure, Brookings does not have a clear direction nor guidance from Dr. Rouse on where we are headed as an organization nor how to navigate the current political climate,” the letter asserts. The letter, sent last week, also argues that Rouse, the former chair of the Council of Economic Advisers in the Biden White House, hasn’t given any guidance on how Brookings is handling federal freezes on grants.
— It requests that the board send out an independent anonymous survey to ask Brookings staffers to assess Rouse’s performance and a town hall meeting with co-chairs of the board for employees to express their concerns.
— It also says that there’s been a brain drain of employees from the think tank last year and alleges that 25 percent of Brookings’ full-time employees have left the think tank since Rouse started.
— The letter goes on to say that Brookings scholars and researchers have been told to avoid topics like DEI that are being criticized by the Trump administration and that the message was “perceived as a form of censorship and a violation of scholar independence.”
— The letter, which is signed by “The Brookings community,” also says that there has been no search for a replacement for its chief development officer and that Rouse has relied on a consulting firm to handle fundraising instead. A recent internal presentation about fundraising shows that Brookings only “partially met” a $2 million annual fundraising goal for the “President’s Special Initiative Funds.”
— Brookings is also considering moving itself from a 501(c)(3) to a 501(h), which would allow the think tank to do lobbying to have more impact, according to internal slides of a recent executive leadership meeting. But an employee of Brookings said the potential move is making some scholars nervous because it could weaken the nonpartisan nature of Brookings.
Here is a previous Think Tank Watch piece about the discontent at Brookings.
