Posted on 08/26/2005 4:57:07 AM PDT by Mike Fieschko
The BB&T Charitable Foundation has donated $1 million to the Belk College of Business at UNC Charlotte to create a program for the study of the moral foundations of free enterprise.
The foundation is the philanthropic arm of Winston-Salem-based BB&T Corp. (NYSE:BBT).
The donation stems from discussion between BB&T Chairman and Chief Executive John Allison IV and Claude Lilly, dean of the school.
"During a dinner meeting last year, our conversation turned from ethics and leadership to metaphysics, objectivism and Ayn Rand," Lilly says. "John and I discovered that we share an interest in how business schools discuss capitalism in their courses, as well as the importance of teaching ethics and values in business."
The donation will be made over five years. The course will be offered to advanced business undergraduates and MBA students.
Lilly will be the first instructor of the course, which will be offered as a business elective in the spring semester.
The gift will also fund faculty research on the philosophical underpinnings of capitalism, create a speakers series, support the Center for Applied Ethics at UNC Charlotte and establish an Ayn Rand reading room on campus. Rand wrote books that celebrated individual achievement.
NC ping
Apologies to all if this article posting is a duplicate.
Well, at least he didn't have dinner with John Travolta. Hubbard wrote some entertaining fiction, too.
Ayn Rand may be famous for AS and "The Fountainhead", but others know her for her numerous writings on capitalism and economics. Even AS has a strong factual foundation in the principles of capitalism.
Hubbard? Well, he was on a bet with Heinlein.
This is a great company. I have had very profitable stock with them for years.
I know she continues to have a strong, faithful following, but Wall Street's Gordon Geeko put it much better and much simpler: "Greed is good."
The point is, ladies and gentleman, that greed -- for lack of a better word -- is good.
Greed is right.
Greed works.
Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit.
Greed, in all of its forms -- greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge -- has marked the upward surge of mankind.
And greed -- you mark my words -- will not only save Teldar Paper, but that other malfunctioning corporation called the USA
Why not just teach Social Darwinism? I suppose we'd be hard put to find someone who'd shell out a million bucks to open a Herbert Spencer reading room. :-)
A great example of true corporate leadership in fostering the community. John Allison should be applauded for this move!
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