NNU has been awarded a $1 million educational grant from the Ralph Smeed Memorial Foundation to create an education center dedicated to teaching the classical principles of free-market economics.
The grant will establish the Center for the Study of Market Alternatives (CSMA), which will be housed in NNU’s business department. CSMA will provide courses on free-market economics at the colleges and universities in Canyon County and conduct continuing-education seminars for secondary school educators.
Peter Crabb, NNU professor of finance and economics, will be the director of the center.
“At Northwest Nazarene University, we seek to instill habits of heart, soul, mind, and strength to enable each student to become God's creative and redemptive agent in the world,” Crabb said. “Throughout its history, the CSMA has pursued a related goal by educating the public on the inherent advantages of a society grounded in freedom and responsibility. Now located at NNU, the CSMA will continue to serve as this educational resource.”
The CSMA was initially established in Boise but, according to Rick Coffman, chairman of the Smeed Foundation, “It was always Smeed’s wish to affiliate the center with a credible academic institution.” 
Coffman said the NNU grant is the largest in the history of the Smeed Foundation. The foundation is named after Ralph Smeed, who passed away in 2010. Smeed was a Caldwell businessman, a prolific writer, and was well-known throughout Idaho.

“His dream will live on through the NNU program,” Coffman continued. “It is a fitting memorial to Ralph’s goal of educating people about the free market in contrast to relying on partisan politics to maintain the flame of economic liberty.”

--Northwest Nazarene University