Ever since the Enron and WorldCom scandals five years ago, corporate malfeasance has been a hot issue. John A. Allison, chairman and CEO of BB&T, believes he knows one way to address the problem – give business students a better understanding of the essential connection between free markets and morality.

To put that belief into action, the BB&T Charitable Foundation has made a $1 million gift to the Joseph M. Bryan School of Business and Economics at UNCG to establish the BB&T Program in Capitalism, Markets and Morality. The program will provide resources for undergraduates, graduate students, and faculty, from disciplines across the campus, to examine and debate the economic, ethical and philosophical basis for free markets.

"We believe there needs to be a deeper understanding of the morality of capitalism and its causal relationship to economic well being. We also believe there is a fundamental integration between economic and political freedom," Allison says.

UNCG is one of several schools where BB&T has supported such programs, and it was an especially good candidate. A Bryan School faculty member, Marianne Hayek, had already developed a course, titled "Markets and Morality," for the Lloyd Honors College.

Allison told Dean Jim Weeks that the program should give students an unbiased look at capitalism and other economic systems. "It is important to us that any program we support meets the highest academic standards and encourages students to hear all points of view," he said. "However, we are confident that, given a fair hearing, capitalism will prevail."

Read the UNCG News press release: http://www.uncg.edu/ure/news/stories/2006/Nov/UNCGBBTGift110206.html