Art Pope's manipulation of Guilford College

This Ayn Rand worship borders on the religious:

The ten-year grant for $500,000 that Guilford College accepted in 2009 included the stipulation that students in certain classes read Ayn Rand’s 1957 novel “Atlas Shrugged.” The grant also stipulated that students who major in business and economics are to receive “free” copies of the novel at the beginning of their junior year, as are certain students in the Principled Problem Solving program.

And the process of pushing this manipulative grant through has all the hallmarks of North Carolina's much-scorned (by conservatives like Pope) formula of zero transparency, back-room deal-making:

The college announced the grant during the summer of 2009, much to the surprise of all but very few faculty members.

When a member of the college’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) asked that the faculty discuss the process by which this grant was accepted, the Clerk’s Committee agreed to put the topic of the process by which the college accepts grants with curricular strings attached on the agenda at the November faculty meeting (the faculty was asked not to discuss the BB&T grant itself), and the general topic was discussed at some length during that meeting and, subsequently, at the December meeting.

There was, however, no consensus. In fact, the faculty was not able even to approve the following statement: “The acceptance of all gifts that involve the creation of new courses and/or academic programs is provisional pending the completion of the normal approval procedures.”

It's hard enough for recent college graduates to find gainful and relevant employment after they walk across the stage. When you add to that difficulty the aura of their school's academic integrity being questioned due to outside interference, that job at McDonald's starts looking better and better as the months of job-hunting roll by.