$2.5M donation to UK college no longer tied to Ayn Rand


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LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) — The University of Kentucky's Gatton College of Business and Economics will no longer have to create reading room named after controversial free-market advocate and novelist Ayn Rand as a requirement of a $2.5 million donation from BB&T.

The Lexington Herald-Leader reports (http://bit.ly/1LUdbZf) under a new agreement, $2 million will go toward the college's $65 million renovation and $500,000 will establish the BB&T Program for the Study of Capitalism.

The original agreement was signed in 2004 and included BB&T giving out free copies of Rand's novels "Atlas Shrugged" and "The Fountainhead."

At that time, BB&T's CEO was John Allison, under whose leadership the BB&T Foundation awarded numerous donations to college and universities with stipulations that required the study of Rand's books.

Gatton Dean David Blackwell negotiated the new deal that was signed in November. Blackwell said he is a fan of Rand but "there are lots of other philosophers to study for the moral foundations of capitalism. She wasn't even a very good philosopher."

John Thelin is a UK professor of higher education. He said universities used to be more concerned about donations with strings attached. That concern has waned in recent years as state funding cuts have made schools more willing to agree to donor requirements.

In 2009, coal magnate Joe Craft paid for a new UK basketball dorm on the condition that it be called Wildcat Coal Lodge and house a shrine to the coal industry. The agreement prompted author Wendell Berry to pull his papers from the university.

According to a news release, the new Program for the Study of Capitalism will be headed by BB&T professor John Garen, who already teaches at Gatton. The program will "provide financial support for research, education and outreach programs to engage both the academic community and the public in a sustained examination of capitalism from economic, historical, legal and social perspectives."

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Information from: Lexington Herald-Leader, http://www.kentucky.com

Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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