Catholic
Colleges & Universities
Teaching ethics after Enron
A significant national story this
year has been the corporate scandals. Almost weekly, newspapers have pictured
yet another former high-flying executive on his way to court for alleged
financial wrongdoing. President Bush last summer lauded corporate leaders who
recognized that “there is more than just a balance sheet.” The same
week Jay Leno quipped: “The Senate voted 97-to-0 for tougher regulations.
For example, when corporations buy a senator, they must now get a
receipt.”
As the scandals spread, the Dow Jones and Nasdaq took a nosedive.
Seniors have found their retirement incomes cut substantially. On the other end
of the age spectrum, widespread corporate malfeasance raises questions for
students preparing to enter the world of business.
Kenneth Goodpaster, who holds an endowed chair in business at the
University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minn., asks: While Catholic educators
have strict guidelines -- in the form of a mandatum -- when it comes to
teaching theology, “the same kind of mandate is not in place to guide
educators in other disciplines.” He said the spirit of Ex Corde
Ecclesiae, the 1990 papal document that called for a strengthening of
Catholic identity in Catholic higher education, “suggests that Catholic
universities that have business programs might want to give special emphasis to
Catholic moral teaching on ethics.”
“Is that teaching just ‘outsourced’ to the
philosophy or theology departments?” Goodpaster asked.
In this special section on Catholic Colleges and Universities,
Patricia Lefevere and Joe Feuerherd report on two Catholic graduate business
schools that are using the corporate scandals as “teaching
moments.”
Also, we look at a Fordham professor who teaches cyberethics and
the newly formed National Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities,
along with a profile of a Jesuit moral theologian and a new center that studies
Catholics in the South.
-- Rich Heffern
National Catholic Reporter, October 25,
2002
|
