MUNCIE — The agreement that Ball State University signed with the Charles Koch Foundation and "Papa John" Schnatter requires the university to promote understanding of the virtues of free enterprise, aka limited government.
In March, the foundation and the founder of Papa John's donated $3,250,000 to Ball State for the creation of the John H. Schnatter Institute for Entrepreneurship and Free Enterprise.
Its mission, according to the grant agreement, is to "become a national model for values- and ethics-based entrepreneurship, developing research and talent to help solve contemporary problems and promote understanding of the characteristics and virtues of free enterprise in helping people improve their lives."
"Free enterprise is identical to free-market capitalism or small government, referring to political reforms that are deregulatory in nature," said Ralph Wilson, a researcher at UnKoch My Campus. "To promote free enterprise, that is not an objective study of a political ideology. That assumes that the virtue is there. It's like, 'Let's dig it up and show people the virtuous side.' It's a one-sided accounting of political ideology."
The characteristics of free enterprise, an economic system, include businesses operating in competition largely free of government interference.
"The free enterprise system is the greatest mechanism mankind has ever created to eliminate poverty, enhance prosperity and enable the pursuit of happiness," Schnatter told The Star Press through a spokesperson when the agreement was signed.