Despite controversy or perhaps because of it, some people are giving Ayn Rand and her ideas serious attention.

"There's definitely an increased interest. More people are jumping on (the bandwagon) all the time," said Kelly Koenig, president of the Penn State Objectivist Club.

Recent membership in the club, which promotes the philosophy of Ayn Rand, has increased this year from five students to eighteen and there are more than 100 people on the club's mailing list, Koenig said.

Rand's work resonates well with people who are at the stage in life where they are figuring out what they want and who they are, said Shannon Sullivan, assistant professor of philosophy and women's studies.

"Undergraduates are captivated by her. I think they see her as empowering. She encourages people to be bold and this is invigorating and appealing," Sullivan said.

In spite of her recent popularity, some still feel that Rand does not derserve so much attention. John Russon, an associate professor of philosophy described her notoriety as a simple "phenomenon of popular culture."

"There's nothing particularly original or interesting in her ideas and she certainly doesn't make it onto the list of philosophers to study," Russon said.

Born Alice Rosenbaum in St. Petersburg, Russia she emigrated to the United States and renamed herself Ayn Rand. Her first name, Ayn, when pronounced correctly rhymes with "pine" and the name Rand is inspired by the Remington-Rand typewriter she used to write her first movie scenarios in the US.

Greatly affected by her experiences with living through the Bolshevik revolution and growing up in communist Russia, Rand detested collectivist political systems. She chose to be a staunch proponent of individualism, minimalist government and laissez-faire capitalism.

In her lifetime, Rand wrote four novels and numberous pieces of non-fiction. A couple of her works like The Fountainhead and We the Living were adapted into movies. A 1991 survey by the Library of Congress and the Book of the Month Club found that Atlas Shrugged is second only to the Bible as the most influential book in America. Rand's books have sold twenty million copies, and they continue to sell at the rate of more than 300,000 copies a year.