aynrand.org/impact Volume 18, Number 11, November 2012 Ayn Rand Institute Campus Up and Running In Conversation with Debi Ghate yn Rand Institute Campus, large initiative. Because instructors are limited Awhich relaunched last at ARI (and since the concept of the Campus is month in a restricted beta ver- to leverage those resources), we created a ded- sion, is ARI’s latest educational icated team of program staff who would help initiative. Visit ARI Campus at create the online learning environment along campus.aynrand.org. with all of the aspects of the courses that do not Impact had the chance require an instructor. This new team of people to sit down with Debi Ghate, at ARI has been working very closely with the who oversaw this project, reach hundreds of thousands—even millions— instructors to create the right educational prod- to learn the details of how of students with educational material. Addition- uct. [Editor’s note: Meet the ARI Campus team ARI Campus came about, what it features and ally, we wanted to make sure that there exists on page 5.] what’s in store for its future. Ms. Ghate is vice a place for students interested in Ayn Rand and Additionally, since so much of what we are president of Education and Research at ARI. her ideas—where they could not only learn doing is based on video, we built a state of the about them, but also discuss them. Thus, the art AV studio in our Irvine office. This studio Impact: What was the impetus behind building Campus is a community-learning environment offers us the ability to quickly and easily create ARI Campus? that not only provides educational materials, but new video content—in fact, all of ARI’s media Debi Ghate: In a sense, the idea for Ayn Rand also encourages that discussion about them. efforts will benefit from this. Building the stu- Institute Campus came out of all of the success Impact: What went into building ARI dio was a major project, and again we partnered that our outreach programs have been having. Campus? with external experts who helped us with the For example, we have been reaching hundreds of DG: ARI Campus was a new and major design and construction. thousands of students through our essay contests, project made possible thanks to targeted fund- Finally, we are working with external our Free Books to Teachers program and our other ing from an anonymous donor. What this fund- resources to help with content development. We outreach programs. Many of these people are look- ing allowed us to do was focus on our exper- have a small group of researchers and instruc- ing for some basic education in Objectivism, yet tise, which is teaching and applying Objec- tors on contract who are helping us with vari- the Institute has very limited resources in terms of tivism. This meant that we were able to work ous aspects of the content. instructors. with external vendors for all of the aspects of Overall, it has taken approximately two and The idea for ARI Campus arose when we the Campus that are outside our expertise. For a half years to get the Campus ready for launch. were considering how we could leverage our instance, we worked with web development The initial portion of that time was dedicated limited instructor resources while still offering and e-learning partners to build the Campus towards defining the best campus environment a high-quality educational experience for the environment and the first nine courses. The for us to create. Then, building the infrastruc- many students who are seeking one from us. overall product is a community-based learning ture and creating the right educational content The Campus leverages technology as a way experience. required a major investment of time. to create interactivity and partially simulate the In addition, we needed to create the infra- In January we attempted to take the site classroom experience. It allows one teacher to structure necessary at ARI to take on such a continued on page 3 Onkar Ghate Interviewed on CNN ARI Commentary on Foreign Policy: Attacks on US Embassies ollowing the attacks on U.S. embas- Fsies in Cairo and Benghazi in Sep- tember, FoxNews.com published an edi- torial by Elan Journo, a fellow at ARI. The article appeared under the headline “Our Self-Crippled Policy Encouraged the Deadly Embassy Attacks” and can be read at bit.ly/ejlibya. In the piece, Mr. Journo writes: “For decades, U.S. policymakers have refused to recognize the religious char- ast month ARI’s Onkar Ghate discussed Ayn Rand’s ideas on CNN’s The acter and goals of the Islamist move- L Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer. The segment in which Dr. Ghate appeared ment. That movement—which encom- focused on Rand’s relevance today, particularly in light of Paul Ryan’s candidacy passes Tehran’s mullahs, al Qaeda, Hamas, Hezbollah, the Muslim Brother- for vice president. Ryan is on record as being a fan of Atlas Shrugged, although hood, and many others—is a political ideology that seeks to subjugate all the not a follower of Rand’s philosophy. world’s peoples, by physical force, under the supreme governing authority of “The fact that Ayn Rand is being discussed on such a mainstream show,” Islamic religious law, in every area of life and thought. commented Yaron Brook, ARI’s executive director, “speaks to how deeply she “America has for decades failed to see how that audacious long-term plan has penetrated the culture.” of conquest—however grandiose and fanciful it might seem—in fact actuates Dr. Ghate’s interview was conducted in August by Poppy Harlow, a CNN the Islamist cause. Whether the Libyan murderers and the mobs in Cairo and news anchor and reporter, outside ARI’s office in Alexandria, Virginia. in Sanaa were truly incensed by a YouTube film or merely using that as a pre- Dr. Ghate is a senior fellow and vice president of Intellectual Leadership at ARI. text, the Islamist goal remains to enforce submission in body and mind—on The segment in which his interview appeared can be viewed at bit.ly/ghatecnn. continued on page 3 Free Market Revolution Authors in a Town Near You s Free Market Revolu- a gathering of physicians, A tion hit bookstores on organized by the Associa- September 18, its authors, tion of American Physicians Yaron Brook and Don Wat- and Surgeons. kins, embarked on a book Dr. Brook’s talk was tour around the nation to met with a standing ovation. promote their latest work Mr. Watkins joined and to debate and discuss Dr. Brook for the events at the ideas in it. Cato and CEI. At Cato “Now that the book’s Mr. Watkins was inter- published,” commented viewed for its daily podcast, Dr. Brook, ARI’s executive which broadcast on October director, “it’s crucial to 1. In addition, as part of engage with audiences to ARI’s series of monthly get them to better under- briefings on Capitol Hill, stand the ideas we stand for the authors spoke to close to and to encourage those who forty congressional staffers. haven’t purchased a copy They also held a virtual yet to do so.” A sampling of locations Yaron Brook and Don Watkins visited this fall to promote Free Market Revolution: How Ayn Rand’s Ideas Can End Big Government Q&A prior to the book’s In the last two months, launch, hosted a reception in Dr. Brook and Mr. Watkins have spoken to a variety ment’s proper role in combating economic inequal- New York City the day the book hit stores and spoke of audiences. Dr. Brook spoke at other think tanks, ity. Dr. Brook participated in another debate, titled at ARI’s annual fundraising dinner in the Big Apple. such as the Cato Institute, Competitive Enterprise “Reaping Is a Virtue,” at the Ford Hall Forum Mr. Watkins also spoke on various college Institute and Illinois Policy Institute, to promote in Boston. His opponent was Deborah Kincade campuses, including the University of Wisconsin at Free Market Revolution. He discussed his book Rambo, president of Catholic Charities Boston. In Madison, Northwestern University and the Univer- with students at ARI’s daylong conference on the San Francisco and Los Angeles, Dr. Brook debated sity of Florida. morality of capitalism, organized with the Foun- David Callahan of Demos on the proper role of At many of the events, ARI made copies of dation for Economic Education (see the October government, as part of ARI’s continuing debate Free Market Revolution available for sale and the issue of Impact for more information). Dr. Brook series on that topic. authors were available to sign books. Dr. Brook and also delivered talks at George Mason and Brown Dr. Brook also roused audiences at Tea Party Mr. Watkins will continue their book tour until at Universities. events in Michigan and Boston on the topic of how least the end of the year. To find out about upcom- At the latter, Dr. Brook debated Glenn Loury, only Ayn Rand’s ideas can successfully end big ing events scheduled near you, visit laissezfaireblog an economics professor at Brown, on the govern- government. In San Diego he spoke about this to .com/events. President Obama Duels with Ayn Rand over What Makes America Great he following is a reprint, by permission, of an article written by ARI The results are a matter of historical record. Untold numbers went from T executive director Yaron Brook and ARI fellow Don Watkins for Forbes.com.