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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forumscinderella story? how the koch bros use florida gcu to promote their agenda
http://www.nationofchange.org/cinderella-story-how-koch-brothers-use-florida-gulf-coast-university-promote-their-agenda-1364568456Its a great story: the virtually unknown, 15th seeded Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU), has made it to the Sweet 16 in the NCAA tournament. But theres something you might not know about FGCU: its economics department is, as a consequence of grants from Randian businessman John Allison and the Charles G. Koch Foundation, a haven for Ayn-Rand Style thinking:
At Florida Gulf Coast University in Fort Myers, every student who majors in economics and finance gets a copy of Ayn Rands novel, Atlas Shrugged FGCU now has a core group of a half dozen economists whose research supports the ideas of free-market capitalism, still an unpopular subject in most faculty lounges. They teach this material to more than 250 economics and finance students (one class is titled The Moral Foundations of Capitalism), organize lectures by leading thinkers, publish their research in well-respected journals and hold influential positions in groups that promote free markets.
The ideological transformation of FGCU economics began in 2009, when Allison, a famous devotee of Ayn Rands who was then the president of banking giant BB&T, donated $600,000 to FGCU to create the endowed BB&T Distinguished Professor of Free Enterprise. Allison now runs the libertarian Cato Institute, a position he gained with the support of Charles and David Koch after some controversy.
The Kochs also supported Allisons efforts at FGCU, a largely local school with about 11,000 undergradutes. A ThinkProgress review of Charles G. Koch Foundation donations from 2008-2011 found $87,000 in donations to Florida Gulf Coast University. According to an internal BB&T professorship report, the Koch money provide[s] operational seed funding for the yearly activities and the local BB&T Charitable Foundation sponsors our premier annual event The BB&T Free Enterprise Lecture Series. The internal report also included metrics on the programs operations such as Atlas Shrugged Distribution Number of students reached: approximately 120.
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cinderella story? how the koch bros use florida gcu to promote their agenda (Original Post)
xchrom
Mar 2013
OP
jehop61
(1,735 posts)1. Can we please have a moment
Of political silence? Let these kids have their moment in the sun and forget politics for one week! Some duers are beginning to sound like the repubs. Equating everything with political thought. Good job Eagles!
alp227
(32,026 posts)2. Are economics departments at MOST colleges tilted right?
The econ chair at the CA state university I go to also has been a guest lecturer at a libertarian think tank. If you thought Florida Gulf Coast economics was tilted look up Auburn and George Mason universities.
HughBeaumont
(24,461 posts)3. You couldn't PAY me to go to business school in the modern era . . .
. . . you have good ol' Martin Feldstien to thank for today's modern business/econ school mess. He helped plant the poison Rand seeds all across the land.