Politics. Ethics. Economic Literacy.

Many of the pressing moral and political issues today have an economic origin. Students especially need to have the critical tools to help them evaluate economic policy issues and the principles underlying and dividing them.

At the UH Hobby Center for Public Policy, we now have the means to provide students with such tools.

A $1 million gift from Branch Banking & Trust (BB&T) to the University of Houston Hobby Center for Public Policy (HCPP) will make new programs, a new speakers series and a summer training institute in social science research methods available for graduate and undergraduates interested in varying public policy perspectives.

The philanthropic investment, available over 10 years, will allow for the creation of “The BB&T Program in the Ethics and Politics of Capitalism” to be housed in the Hobby Center for Public Policy.

The newly created HCPP program includes an upper-level elective course, “Political Economy and Ethics of the Free Market.” It covers different perspectives on the free market. This generous gift also supports an annual two-week institute in social science methods that will bring top-flight scholars and graduate students from other universities to UH to work with our faculty and students.

Funds also will support undergraduate and graduate student stipends, as well as lectures, seminars and workshops, which will draw scholars from varied disciplines and perspectives across the country to share their research on ethics and economic issues.

The BB&T gift and program also helps to launch a new initiative of the HCPP. As part of the UH Tier One effort, this initiative is developing funding for interdisciplinary conferences and colloquia for the university and Houston community on the issues central to civil societies, as well as support for visiting scholars and fellows, and for UH faculty, graduate and undergraduate students across the liberal arts and social sciences.

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This blog entry was written by Dr. Jim Granato, director of the Hobby Center for Public Policy at the University of Houston.