The University of Connecticut Board of Trustees voted nearly unanimously to rename the G1 Cleanroom in the Science 1 Research Center to the “RTX Research Center” at the Feb. 28 board of trustees meeting, according to The Daily Campus. The dedication came at the recommendation of university President Radenka Maric, who also recommended that the United Technologies Engineering Building be renamed after RTX subsidiary Pratt & Whitney in 2022.
The RTX Corporation, after which the research facility is named, is the second largest military contractor both nationally and globally, generating 59% of its revenue from the U.S. and other militaries. Formerly known as Raytheon Technologies, RTX is composed of three major subsidiaries: Raytheon, including its military arm Raytheon Missiles & Defense, Pratt & Whitney and Collins Aerospace. The latter two subsidiaries are based in Connecticut.
The Daily Campus Editorial Board has long been outspoken against the encroachment of the war industry at UConn. We strongly reject the use of UConn’s research and development capacities to develop weapons of war, and we consider this a moral and political stain on this university’s mission and global impact. In this same vein, we have warned that academic integration into the war industry makes UConn directly complicit in the atrocities committed with weapons produced by “strategic partners” like RTX and Lockheed Martin, the world’s largest weapons manufacturer, further normalizing mass death as a legitimate and justifiable vocation.
As such, we call not only for the reversal of the decision to dedicate a university research center to one of the country’s foremost war profiteers, but for UConn to cut ties with RTX entirely.
Before articulating the global harm for which RTX is a willing beneficiary, there is one disquieting fact of the decision to rename Science 1’s state-of-the-art research facility: It involves a major, unaddressed conflict of interest.
According to the Feb. 6 minutes of the board of trustees Institutional Advancement Committee, the motion to officially bring Maric’s recommendation to dedicate a research center after RTX to a full board of trustees vote came from alumni trustee Bryan K. Pollard. Pollard is currently the Associate General Counsel for the RTX Corporation, meaning he led a motion concerning his employer.
This glaring conflict of interest makes the decision to rename the G1 classroom wholly illegitimate in the eyes of the Editorial Board. Furthermore, it represents the gross collusion between military contractors and the university. If Pollard was not asked to abstain from this hugely consequential vote — the only abstention in the full board vote was from the undergraduate trustee — we have serious doubts that UConn administrators and trustees would object to the harm and destruction for which RTX itself is responsible.
RTX collects handsome profits from mass death, and this is far from an abstract accusation. Evidence of RTX’s direct role in global conflict is evident in the genocide unfolding in Gaza, perpetrated by the state of Israel and financed by the United States, which had killed over 30,000 Palestinians by the February board of trustees meeting. The systematic starvation of 2.2 million Palestinians in Gaza, often laundered through the neutral terminology of “famine,” threatens the lives of hundreds of thousands more.
In RTX’s 2023 Annual Report, the company briefly assesses the “potential impacts” of “business, customers, suppliers, employees, and operations in Israel” in the aftermath of Oct. 7. The report concludes that impacts on business operations are “minimal.” Further, RTX even anticipated positive impacts of U.S. military aid to Israel, with CEO Greg Hayes saying that the company would “see a benefit of this restocking” of arms on Oct. 24, 2023, according to Business Insider.
RTX subsidiary Pratt & Whitney, the eponym of numerous buildings and research centers at UConn, is the sole producer of F-100 engines, which power F-15 and F-16 fighter jets, as well F-135 engines, which power the F-35. Each of these aircraft are included in the Israeli Air Force inventory, including the bomber fleet dropping bombs currently killing and displacing Palestinians. Collins Aerospace, which sponsors a research center in the Innovation Partnership Building, collaborates with Israeli arms manufacturer Elbit Systems to produce helmet-mounted displays for pilots of these F-35 bombers.
As we discussed, the vast majority of RTX’s income is generated from military contracts; thus, it is unambiguous that the company’s primary role is as an accessory to militarism and, now, the mass slaughter of Palestinians. We are cognizant that many members of the board of trustees will remain complacent as the guilty hands of war profiteers tighten their grasp, symbolically and materially, over UConn. Nonetheless, we view total separation from RTX as an imperative. Allowing military contractors to recruit in classrooms and career fairs, sponsor research and endow professorships are currently — and will be — viewed as UConn’s willful involvement in global harm. As students who care about many aspects of this institution, we do not tolerate this.
The Editorial Board has previously discussed UConn’s potential as an institution that can help steer the state of Connecticut away from its dependency on the war industry. The present need for this could not be more pressing. We call on UConn to cut ties with RTX and reverse the illegitimate decision to name a major university research center after a merchant of mass death.