Wealthy pimp Rand to college students through eager universities

Posted by Charles II on April 12, 2008

There is hardly any act more intrinsically corrupt than a college professor accepting cash to teach the writings of someone. And yet that seems to have happened, as universities have lined up to pimp right-wing novelist Ayn Rand to unsuspecting college kids. Matthew Keenan, Bloomberg:

The charitable arm of BB&T Corp., a banking company, pledged $1 million to the University of North Carolina Charlotte in 2005 and obtained an agreement that Rand’s novel “Atlas Shrugged” would become required reading for students. Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia, and Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte, North Carolina, say they also took grants and agreed to teach Rand….

“A corporation crosses a line and a university is complicit in crossing the line if it accepts money” and accedes to a request to assign specific books, said Jonathan Knight, director of the program on academic freedom, tenure and governance for the American Association of University Professors, in Washington. “It’s unique in my experience.” Knight has worked in the field for 31 years….