RADFORD -- Next semester, Radford University will join 38 other colleges in offering courses funded by BB&T.

When Radford President Penelope Kyle announced the $750,000 gift in September, she said it would be used "to encourage a thorough discussion of the moral foundations of capitalism."

The only assigned reading in the course will be Ayn Rand's 1957 novel, "Atlas Shrugged." It is a nearly 1,100-page argument for Rand's philosophy of life, liberty and laissez-fair capitalism.

"That's considered probably the most influential book among business executives," said Virginia Tech finance professor Douglas Patterson.

Patterson is director of Tech's Program for the Study of Free Markets and Individual Freedom, which is getting $1 million from BB&T. The program will offer its second round of classes this spring.

"The whole rationale for a lot of this is that business school students, undergraduates and MBAs, learn a lot of technical how-to stuff in their classes," Patterson said. "But they usually don't have an understanding of how our economy is supposed to work, the philosophy behind it and so on. So we're trying to equip them in that regard."

Some people wonder what kind of equipment students might get from a course built on Rand's philosophy.

"My philosophy, in essence," Rand wrote in the afterward to "Atlas Shrugged," "is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute."

Glen Martin, a Radford philosophy professor, calls that "Ayn Rand's so-called philosophy."

"The book 'Atlas Shrugged' is, in my view, philosophical trash," Martin wrote in an e-mail. "I read it years ago and immediately dismissed it as not worthy of serious philosophical consideration."

Patterson said students in his spring classes will also get a copy of "The Age of Turbulence" by Alan Greenspan, a Rand devotee. They will also read some opinion pieces.

Faye Gilbert, dean of Radford's College of Business and Economics, said "Atlas Shrugged" will be the only book assigned in her class. She said she expects students to bring supporting and opposing views to the class, which will be built around discussion and debate.

"It's a nice way to empower them to shape what questions they want to debate with each other. ... I am really looking forward to watching them pressure each other to learn more, do more, grow in confidence that they've done their homework so they can express an opinion and back it up."

The course isn't intended to convert students to Rand's objectivism, Gilbert said. "Atlas Shrugged" is simply a tool to foster discussion.

"One of the quotes is, 'I will never live for the sake of another man or ask another man to live for mine.' Well, my gosh, just take that one sentence and talk about what the means," Gilbert said. "And what that means in business and with the philanthropic responsibility of business to reach out and help others."

Some say BB&T's requiring "Atlas Shrugged" compromises academic freedom. The faculty of Meredith College, in Raleigh, N.C., voted to reject BB&T's money rather than let it dictate assignments.

Richard Sorensen, dean of Virginia Tech's Pamplin College of Business, said there is no academic freedom issue. The faculty develops the class. The other books are chosen by faculty. It is unusual for a donor to specify a reading assignment -- Sorensen said he doesn't know of a another similar case -- but donors generally require something. "Otherwise, why would they be giving you money?" he asked.

Last year's announcement of Marshall University's BB&T funded Center for the Advancement of American Capitalism spurred a spirited debate of Rand's philosophy and academic freedom.

"The controversy had died down a bit," said Cal Kent, the distinguished professor of business teaching the class.

But another controversy may be stirring. Kent said he recently talked to someone from West Virginia Public Radio about BB&T and the federal government's bank bailout.

John Allison, the Rand follower who heads BB&T, wrote a letter to every member of Congress in September laying out 14 reasons the bailout was a bad idea. That was consistent with Rand's philosophy. The bank's subsequent decision to accept $3.1 billion in bailout money was not.