ADVOCACY GROUPS DEMAND ACADEMIC TRANSPARENCY — Public interest groups today are calling on Northwestern University to institute stricter disclosure requirements for faculty after a law professor there wrote a brief supporting Facebook’s petition for FTC Chair Lina Khan to recuse herself from decisions related to the social media company.

Context: In his FTC filing, Daniel Rodriguez, a former dean of Northwestern’s law school, agreed with Facebook’s argument that Khan’s past remarks represented a conflict of interest. Rodriguez disclosed that he was being paid hourly by law firm Kellogg, Hansen, Todd, Figel & Frederick, which is representing Facebook in its antitrust suits, for his work, but did not specify the rate or how many hours he worked.

Pushback: The groups criticizing Rodriguez, including the American Economic Liberties Project, Fight for the Future, Fairplay and the Revolving Door Project, said they don’t oppose academics seeking compensation for their expertise, but that those activities “should be conducted in an accountable manner.” (Northwestern has disclosure requirements, but faculty are exempt if those activities do not conflict with their “institutional responsibilities” at the university. The school did not respond to a request for comment.)

“Such broad allowance gives faculty members unbridled liberty to leverage their affiliations with the University for profit while shielding themselves from scrutiny,” the groups write in a letter to Northwestern President Morton Schapiro and law school Dean Hari Osofsky.

Tech companies have been funding academic research on topics like artificial intelligence, a practice that has attracted scrutiny from ethics watchers.