MARINA DEL REY, CA -- The Ayn Rand Institute (ARI) today applauded Nike CEO Philip H. Knight's decision to end his financial support of his alma mater, University of Oregon.
     "Mr. Knight appears to have taken a courageous, principled stand in refusing to continue funding the university," said ARI president and executive director Dr. Yaron Brook.
     The Associated Press reports that Knight's decision to stop personal donations to the university which have totaled $50 million, stemmed from its membership in an activist organization that has attacked Nike's global business and labor practices.
     Just before her death in 1982, novelist/philosopher Ayn Rand spoke out about the need for businessmen to be wary of the causes they support -- especially in the universities. She observed that "it is a moral crime to give money to support ideas with which you disagree. . . It is a moral crime to give money to support your own destroyers. Yet that is what businessmen are doing with such reckless irresponsibility."
     According to the Associated Press, Knight was "shocked" to learn that Oregon had pledged its support to a student activist group that was backed by radical unions and left-wing student organizations, and that had a long track record of consistently vilifying Nike.
     "If only more CEOs looked into the activities of the organizations they -- and their companies -- support, I think they'd be shocked as well," noted Brook, adding that "too many corporations and their management unwittingly fund organizations that take that money and use it -- directly and indirectly -- to assault the rights of corporations and shareholders."
     "We can only hope that more CEOs will show the principled courage that Knight has -- and stop funding their enemies."
 
ARI president and executive director Dr. Yaron Brook is available for interviews.