The Baruch College Faculty Handbook
Ethics Week 2005
Last updated on 4/8/05
Ethics Week 2005
April 11-15
Ethics Week 2005 at Baruch College will comprise three main components: classroom discussion of ethical issues related to specific subjects/disciplines, an ethics bowl competition (a series of debates between undergraduates representing the three schools), and special events featuring invited guests.
Ethics Week 2005 is generously supported by the Charles Dreifus Ethics-Across-the-Curriculum Initiative and a grant from the Joseph Drown Foundation.
Schedule of Events
(see below for materials on developing classroom discussions)
TUESDAY, APRIL 5 (A PRE-ETHICS-WEEK EVENT)
12:30-2:30
Everybody’s Doing It?
Join a discussion of why cheating has become so pervasive in our culture and what can be done to stop it. David Callahan, author of The Cheating Culture: Why More Americans Are Doing Wrong to Get Ahead, will challenge the audience to question some practices that have become mainstream. Refreshments will be served. Sponsored by the Undergraduate Student Government and the Office of the Provost. Members of the faculty wshould feel free to alert students to this event and to bring their classes. For more on David Callahan and The Cheating Culture see: www.cheatingculture.comLocation: Vertical Campus 3-165
MONDAY, APRIL 11
3:30-5:00
Panel Discussion on Academic Integrity: What Should We Expect of Professors?
Baruch's academic integrity initiative has concentrated on issues related to student academic integrity. But all members of the academic community should conduct themselves with integrity, and members of the faculty and students have asked the academic integrity committee to address these issues as they apply to faculty as well. We will begin that effort with a forum that involves students and members of the faculty. The initial focus of the discussion will be Saints and Scamps: Ethics in Academia (Rowman & Littlefield, 1986, 1994) by Steven M. Cahn, former Provost of the CUNY Graduate Center. A panel of three undergraduates (Kathlene Burke, Laura Simão, and Joshua Stern) and two faculty members (Mindy Engle-Friedman, Psychology and Baruch College's Ombuds, and Douglas Lackey, Philosophy) will comment on the book and its relevancy to their own experiences. The audience will be invited to contribute to the discussion.
Location: 17 Lexington Avenue, Room 1220
TUESDAY, APRIL 12
12:30-2:30
Ethics Bowl - Preliminary Rounds
Preliminary rounds will take place in breakout rooms on the 14th floor of the Vertical Campus.
Check-in Location: Vertical Campus 14-270
(See below for more information on the ethics bowl)
4:30-5:30
Ethics Bowl - Final Round
The top two teams will compete and the winner will be named ($600 prize to the top team). Judges include members of the Baruch community and invited guests, such as Randy Cohen (author of the Ethicist column for the Sunday Times Magazine) and Peter Vallone, former Speaker of the New York City Council.
Location: Vertical Campus 14-220
5:30-5:45
Abraham J. Briloff Prizes in Ethics
Winners of the 2004 Briloff Prizes will be announced and the prizes will be given. The faculty award is $1,500. The student award is $500. For more information on the Briloff Prizes and a list of recent winners, see http://www.baruch.cuny.edu/facultyhandbook/BriloffPrizes.htm
Location: VC 14-220
6:15-7:00
The Vallone Lecture Series: Ethics and Good Government
Peter F. Vallone, former Speaker of the City Council, will present the capstone lecture of his 2004-2005 lecture series. The lecture will address such current controversies as campaign finance reform and the commuter use fee. Sponsored by the School of Public Affairs.
Location: Vertical Campus 14-220
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 13
11:30
Maintaining Ethics in Profit Driven Enterprises
Sponsored by the Robert Zicklin Center for Corporate Integrity, and moderated by President Kathleen Waldron, this forum will explore the issue of reinforcing integrity in the pursuit of profit, from four different viewpoints, including those of:
- H. Stephen Grace, Jr., Ph.D., President of H.S. Grace & Company, Inc., and Grace & Co. Consultancy, Inc.
- Barry Salzberg, Managing Partner of Deloitte and Touche
- E. Scott Gilbert, Chief Compliance Officer, Marsh & McLennan Companies, Inc.
- Professor Joshua Ronen, Stern School of Business, NYU
For more information see the Zicklin Center's website.
Location: Vertical Campus 14-220
THURSDAY, APRIL 14
12:30-1:30
Mr. William McDonough, Chairman of the Public Companies Accounting Oversight Board, will give a talk open to all students, including the Accounting Society and Beta Alpha Psi members. The talk will be followed by Q&A.
Sponsored by the Robert Zicklin Center for Corporate Integrity. For more information see the Zicklin Center website.
Location: Vertical Campus 14-220
1:00-2:00
How an Ethics Controversy Can Ruin Your Scientific Career
Douglas Lackey (Philosophy) will be speaking to Baruch's BioMed Society about the branch of bioethics that involves research on human subjects.
Location: 17 Lexington Avenue, Room 404
FRIDAY, APRIL 15
9:00-4:00
Eighth Annual Teaching and Technology Conference
Two "tracks" of Baruch College's Annual Teaching and Technology Conference will focus directly on the ethics of online education. For more information about the conference (and to register) see: http://www.kognito.net/baruchtech/
Location: Vertical Campus 14th floor
* * * * *
Classroom Discussions
Preparatory Materials
Prof. Douglas Lackey (Philosophy) will lead faculty development workshops entitled Ethics Discussions in the Classroom: How to Start Them, How to Keep Them Going, and How Not To Go Off the Rails. An outline and an ethics primer that Prof. Lackey prepared are available through the foregoing links.
Tuesday, April 5, 12:30, VC 14-290
RSVP to Abigail Stevens (212-802-2820)
Prof. W. Ray Williams (Law) has compiled a handbook entitled Ethics and Law: Basic Concepts, Cases, and Dilemmas for members of the Law Department (and others) to use as a resource for classroom discussions. (During Ethics Week, all courses in the Department of Law will feature discussion of frameworks for ethical decision making, investigation of different philosophical approaches to ethical decision making, and case studies and dilemmas.)
Ethics Bowl
A new addition to Ethics Week, the Ethics Bowl will build upon traditions of such debate competitions established at universities across the nation. Ours will take place on Tuesday, April 12 (schedule below) and will be centered around issues of academic, business, and public ethics. We have designed the program to provide equal opportunities to all students, regardless of their previous public speaking or debate background. Teams of undergraduates, advised by a faculty mentor, will represent each of the three schools. They will compete to score points in two preliminary rounds and the top two teams will compete in the finals and receive rewards for their efforts.
Each
mentor will spend roughly four or five hours with his or her
team over a four week period. Students will receive a complete
set of instructions and sample ethics questions, so they
should be able to prepare almost completely on their own.
Faculty members will need merely to guide them in developing
their arguments. No previous debate experience is required
of faculty mentors.
Interested faculty members should contact Sarah Ryan:
646-312-4270 or Sarah_Ryan@baruch.cuny.edu
* * * * *
Some background information on Ethics Week at Baruch College
A tangible result of the Spring 2003 Seminar, "Ethics Across and Beyond the Curriculum," was the suggestion by Prof. Roslyn Bernstein (English) that the college designate one week as "Ethics Week," during which members of the faculty would be encouraged to discuss ethical issues specific to their subjects/disciplines in their classrooms, and departments or programs would invite outside speakers for public presentations.
Ethics Week at Baruch is organized by Associate Provost Dennis Slavin (212-802-2805) with the assistance of an Advisory Committee: Profs. Douglas Lackey (Philosophy), Seth Lipner (Law), Sarah Ryan (School of Public Affairs), Donald Schepers (Management), and Dan Williams (School of Public Affairs).
