CNU speaker series is part of expanded study of capitalism

News Release - Dec. 13, 2006

Public's contact for publication:
Dr. Michelle Vachris
(757) 594-7719
mvachris@cnu.edu

Media contact:
Karen L. Gill
Office of Communications and Public Relations
(757) 594-8428

Tyler Cowen, a professor of economics at George Mason University's Center for the Study of Public Choice, will address how economists think about incentives, 4-5 p.m., Jan. 25, at Christopher Newport Unversity.

(NEWPORT NEWS, Va.) — A new endowed professorship at Christopher Newport University is helping expand the study of capitalism, not only at CNU but across Virginia, as well. The BB&T Professorship for the Study of Capitalism was established by a $250,000 contribution from the BB&T Charitable Foundation, based in Winston-Salem, N.C. The contribution will be paid over five years at $50,000 per year. The first contribution was made in April, and the professorship began for the fall 2006 semester. According to John Allison, chairman and chief executive officer of BB&T Corp., a commercial and retail banking and financial services company, “The primary purpose of this professorship will be to explore the fundamental integration between economic and political freedom and to encourage a serious consideration of the moral foundations of capitalism with special reference to the American experience.” BB&T Charitable Foundation makes grants to a wide variety of public charities. For 2005-2006, nearly 60 percent of its grant dollars went for education and more than 25 percent for health and human services, according to Rodney A. Hughes, executive director of the Foundation. The remaining 15 percent went to civic and public affairs, community and economic development, culture and arts and the environment, he said.

Dr. Michelle Vachris, the BB&T Professor for 2006-07, has begun several initiatives to meet the responsibilities of the professorship. This fall, she taught a new course: Economics in American Literature, which she also will teach in the spring. She is proposing to teach another new course: Capitalism, American Style.

“These are lessons I’ve been teaching for 12 years, but now I can focus on these issues more and teach specific courses rather than just trying to work them into existing courses,” said Dr. Vachris, an associate professor of economics who came to CNU in fall 1994 after 10 years as an economist for the U.S. Department of Labor.

She also has implemented a colloquium series on the values and current issues of American capitalism, which brought to campus Dr. Eric Daniels, a visiting scholar at Clemson University’s Institute for the Study of Capitalism, in November. On Jan. 25, the next speaker, Tyler Cowen, professor of economics at George Mason University in the Center for the Study of Public Choice, will lecture. With a doctorate degree in economics from Harvard University, Cowen also is the director of both the James Buchanan Center and the Mercatus Center, and he publishes daily at www.marginalrevolution.com.  The lecture will be from his forthcoming book, "Discover Your Inner Economist: Use Incentives to Fall in Love, Survive Your Next Meeting, and Motivate Your Dentist," to be published by Dutton Books in fall 2007. (More information below).

And, Dr. Vachris is doing research, with a CNU student assistant and an intern from Menchville High School in Newport News, on the relationship between economic freedom, political freedom and values, and she is working to expand the CNU library’s holdings of books and journals that support the study of capitalism.

Dr. Vachris said she bases her work on the study of the morals of capitalism.

“Capitalism is an economic system based on private property rights, a profit motive and the use of a price system to allocate goods and services," she said. "Capitalism is a moral economic system for many reasons. It is based on mutually beneficial, voluntary exchange. The profit motive in a capitalist economy generally results in an abundance of goods and services and leads to a high standard of living. The search for profit also results in innovation and creativity. Most importantly, capitalism is the only economic system that fully protects the rights of the individual.”

Dr. Vachris had proposed teaching the Economics in Literature course even before the BB&T Professorship was established, she said, although at that time, it would have meant eliminating one session of an introductory economics course that she was teaching. The BB&T Professorship now provides funding for another instructor to teach the introductory course. It also provides time for Dr. Vachris to work on projects, as well as resources to pay her student assistant and conference fees.

In August, she attended a conference at The Clemson Institute for the Study of Capitalism that focused on teaching the novel “Atlas Shrugged” as a tool for illustrating free markets and ethical foundations of capitalism. BB&T provides a free copy of “Atlas Shrugged” to all incoming business and economics majors at CNU.

“This gift enables me to do more of what I had been doing,” Dr. Vachris said. “I get extra benefits for something that I love doing anyway. It’s invigorated my career here.”

She is planning to develop course material on the moral and ethical foundation of American capitalism and other curricula to be used in elementary and secondary schools in Virginia. Working with CNU’s Center for Economic Education, she hopes to plan a workshop for K-12 teachers in the spring. Dr. Vachris’ other goals include the possibility of providing summer programs in the study of capitalism for high school students.

For more information about the BB&T Professorship and the BB&T Colloquium Series on Capitalism, contact Dr. Michelle Vachris at (757) 594-7719 or mvachris@cnu.edu.

If you go

• What: BB&T Colloquium Series on Capitalism: “How to Control Other People”
• Who: Tyler Cowen, professor of economics at George Mason University in the Center for the Study of Public Choice
• When: 4-5 p.m., Jan. 25, 2007. Reception follows
• Where: Music and Theatre Hall, Ferguson Center for the Arts, Christopher Newport University, Newport News, Va.
• Free and open to the public
• Contact: Dr. Michelle Vachris, (757) 594-7719, mvachris@cnu.edu