A $1 million gift from the BB&T Charitable Foundation to the Bryan School of Business and Economics at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro will strengthen students’ understanding of the moral foundations of our economic system.

The gift will establish the BB&T Program in Capitalism, Markets and Morality. The program will offer undergraduate and graduate students from disciplines across UNCG the opportunity to examine the ethical and philosophical basis for free market economies.

“Unfortunately, we find that many students who graduate with business degrees while understanding the ‘technology’ of business, do not have a clear grasp of the moral principles underlying free markets, ” said John Allison IV, chairman and executive officer of BB&T Corporation.

“This program matches our shared interests in giving students a fair and balanced perspective on capitalism and free markets and in giving students across the UNCG campus a better understanding of our economy and greater ability to make meaningful contributions to our world,” said Dr. James K. Weeks, dean of the Bryan School of Business and Economics.

The gift will support an undergraduate course addressing “markets and morality” as part of a campus-wide offering in the Lloyd International Honors College. Students from all disciplines may enroll in the courses. A graduate-level course will be developed as well.

Funding from the program will be used to expand the offerings of the undergraduate course and to provide faculty members with curriculum-development grants for courses that advance students’ understanding of the moral foundations of capitalism. The gift will support one doctoral fellow in economics each year.

In addition, the BB&T Distinguished Lecture Series in Capitalism will be launched. The series will focus on ethical and core values in business. Dr. Bruce Caldwell, Joe Rosenthal Excellence Professor in Economics at UNCG, will be among the presenters. Caldwell is the editor of “The Collected Works of F.A. Hayek,” one of the most influential free-market economists of the 20th century.

The BB&T Ayn Rand Reading Room will be established in the Walter Clinton Jackson Library. The collection is to include Rand’s fiction and non-fiction, along with works by other authors who support economic freedom.

The BB&T Charitable Foundation is the philanthropic wing of BB&T Corporation, a Winston-Salem-based financial holding company with $118.5 billion in assets. BB&T operates more than 1,450 banking offices in 11 states and Washington, D.C.

-November 2006