The Baruch College Faculty Handbook

Last updated on 4/25/03

Seminar Series for Spring 2003
Ethics Across and Beyond the Curriculum

This series is generously supported by the

Charles Dreifus Ethics-Across-the-Curriculum Initiative

and a grant from the Joseph Drown Foundation.

OPEN TO ALL

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For information on the

May 1 roundtable discussion

and for access to the documents available

for that discussion, scroll to the bottom of this page.

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To what degree do ethical considerations inform the curriculum
at Baruch College, which includes the largest accredited business
school in the nation? Ethics figures prominently in the curricula
of all three schools (see the linked list of required
courses in ethics). Nevertheless, focusing on how ethics is
taught and how we might teach ethics better is particularly appropriate
at this time, hence the faculty seminar series for Spring 2003:
Ethics Across and Beyond the Curriculum. As outlined
below, the seminar will feature presentations and discussions led
by nine faculty members (and guests) who have taken special interest
in ethical considerations in their disciplines, which range from
accountancy to art, from law to philosophy.

Students, faculty, staff, and alumni are invited
to participate.

– Each session will take place on a Thursday from 10am -noon
(except as noted)

– Refreshments will be available.

– Please note that the locations listed below vary.

1. February 6 – Skylight Room (17 Lex, Room 306)

 

Douglas Carmichael (Accountancy)
Teaching Ethics: What do we want to achieve?
Guests: Abraham Briloff and Larry Zicklin
Larry Zicklin will discuss the course in Professional Responsibility
that he teaches at NYU. See the linked syllabus
for that course.

 

2. February 13 – Skylight Room (17 Lex, Room 306)

 

Douglas Lackey (Philosophy)
When Ethics Comes Up: How to Sustain an Ethics Discussion in
the Classroom

See the handout for this discussion.

 

3. February 27 – Skylight Room (17 Lex, Room 306)

 

Gail Levin (Fine and Performing Arts)
Ethics and Collecting Art
Guest: Elizabeth A. Sackler (public historian)

 

4. March 6 – Vertical Campus, Room 14-270

 

Christopher Hallowell (English)
Ethics: the Responsibility of Journalism

 

5. March 13 – Vertical Campus, Room 14-270

 

Donald Schepers (Management)
The Role of Ethics and Leadership in Business Education
Guest: James Weber (Duquesne U.)
Prof. Weber kindly made his Powerpoint presentation and notes
available for posting here.

 

6. March 20 – Skylight Room (17 Lex, Room 306)

 

Seth Lipner (Law)
Ethical Decision Making

 

7. March 27 – Skylight Room (17 Lex, Room 306)

 

CHANGE: This session will begin at 10:45

Daniel Williams (School of Public Affairs)
Democratic Sovereignty and Individual Responsibility

 

8. April 3 – Vertical Campus, Room 14-270

 

Thomas Heinrich (History)
The Andersen Scandal: A Historical Perspective

The collapse of Arthur Andersen is a severe blow
to the American accounting profession. Andersen was not only one
of the industry’s largest firms, but also helped pioneer
computer consulting services, and for many decades considered
itself the ethical Marine Corps of the accounting profession.
Its inglorious end raises disturbing questions about the past,
present, and future of the profession.

 

Heinrich examines the development of the firm
from its founding in 1913, the rise of consulting services in
the larger context of the post-World War II computer revolution,
and the controversies that led to the breakup of the firm into
Arthur Andersen and Andersen Consulting in 1997. Documenting that
ethical concerns were “present at the creation” of Andersen’s
consulting services in the 1940s, Professor Heinrich argues that
Andersen began to downplay ethics-related problems in the 1970s
and 1980s amidst seismic changes in the firm’s partnership
and the profession writ large. These developments set the stage
for the firm’s dramatic collapse in 2002.

 

9. April 10 – Vertical Campus, Room 14-270

 

Trudy Milburn (Communication Studies)
Ethics and Communication

 

10. May 1 – Vertical Campus, Room 14-270

 

Roundtable discussion

Ethics Across the Curriculum

Documents available for discussion:

 

• • Don Schepers’s Where
    to from here? memo

 

• • Ethics in America (Joshua
    Mills’s draft course proposal of July 2002)

 

• • Dan Williams’s Powerpoint presentation on Democratic
    Sovereignty and Individual Responsibility

 

• • Forthcoming article in the Contemporary Issues Section of
    Journal of Individual Employment Rights, Charles Coleman,
    Editor, Baywood Publishing Company Inc., March 2003: CAMPAIGN
    AACSB: Are Business Schools Complicit in Corporate Corruption?
    by Diane L. Swanson (von Waaden Professor of Business Administration,Kansas State University) and William C. Frederick (Professor
    Emeritus of Business Administration, University of Pittsburgh).

 

• • Syllabus for the course in Professional
    Responsibility taught by Larry Zicklin at NYU.