The university gift with strings attached

If you went to college in America, you probably spent a small fortune on books, perhaps even more than you spent on beer. The books --  almost always new hardback editions -- were required reading in various courses. Well, what if you found out that a particular book was required not by a professor but a university donor? You wouldn't be pleased, would you? I'd be utterly furious, especially if it was one of the books that I actually read.

According to the Charlotte Observer, at least one university donor has prescribed a book for students and it's none other than Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged."

As a college student in Chapel Hill, John Allison stumbled across a collection of essays by Ayn Rand and was hooked by her philosophy of self-interest and limited government. As he rose over the decades to chief executive of BB&T, one of the country's leading regional banks, Rand remained his muse.

He's trying to replicate that encounter through the charitable arm of his Winston-Salem-based company, which since 1999 has awarded more than $28 million to 27 colleges to support the study of capitalism from a moral perspective.

But on at least 17 of those campuses, including UNC Charlotte, N.C. State and Johnson C. Smith University, the gifts come with an unusual stipulation: Rand's novel, "Atlas Shrugged," is included in a course as required reading.

The schools' agreements have drawn criticism from some faculty, who say it compromises academic integrity. In higher education, the power to decide course content is supposed to rest with professors, not donors. Debate about the gifts, which arose at UNCC this month, illustrates tensions that exist over corporate influence on college campuses.

UNCC received its $1 million gift pledge in 2005, but details about the "Atlas Shrugged" requirement came to light as the school dedicated an Ayn Rand reading room March 12.

"It's going to make us look like a rinky-dink university," UNCC religious studies professor Richard Cohen said Thursday after UNCC Chancellor Phil Dubois told the faculty council about the gift. "It's like teaching the Bible as a requirement." [Link]

You mean UNCC isn't a rinky-dink university? If not, then imagine what's happening at the hundreds of actual rinky-dink universities and colleges in America, including the ones I attended. Surely donors are not just putting their names on buildings, walls and scholarships, but also "suggesting" what ideas should be taught and where professors can stick academic integrity.

If UNCC and the other 16 universities had an ounce of integrity left, they'd give John Allison a message: "Sorry, Mr. Allison, but we've decided that the only Rand you can force on us is the South African kind."