FGCU's dorms Florida Gulf Coast University Although Florida Gulf Coast University is only 22 years old, its economics department has already developed a reputation for it's pro-free enterprise philosophy.

A 2011 article by Jean Gruss of the Florida-based Business Observer describes how department is run by "core group of a half dozen economists whose research supports the ideas of free-market capitalism, still an unpopular subject in most faculty lounges."

Every economics student gets a copy of Ayn Rand's objectivist novel Atlas Shrugged, Gruss reports, and the school offers classes like "Moral Foundations & Capitalism."

One of the professors leading the effort is Bradley Hobbs, Ph.D.

Hobbs is a visiting professor at Clemson this semester. But he's still employed by FGCU, and he summed up his academic philosophy for the Business Observer in 2011:

“We also need diversity of thought,” says Hobbs, whose own early leftist views shifted “from Marx to Hayek” later in his career. “The best debater is the one who knows the other side’s argument better than they do,” he quips. “We hold students’ feet to the fire.”

The reporter asked Hobbs about the fact that he worked for the government (FGCU is a public school), to which he replied, "It’s one of the great ironies of my life."

His website features this graphic:

So even though FGCU is still in its infancy, it looks like its already established a bit of an academic reputation.