The ethics of it all

There is room for the "e" word in all majors 

By CHRISTOPHER J. ORTIZ
The Rocky Mountain Collegian, Colorado State University 

"You're the last person I want doing genetic engineering...you don't have any ethics," I told a friend of mine during a lunch conversation about the College of Engineering cutting the Bioresource and Agricultural Engineering Program.
Later on that day, I began to think about how ethics are taught to today's college student and the frightening thought that some students can go through their entire undergraduate career without hearing the all-important "e" word - ethics.
Conveniently enough, later on I found myself in another ethics discussion in JT211, Visual Communications - a requirement for all technical journalism majors, including public relations majors. The discussion was over a reprint in Life Magazine of the infamous picture depicting the 1970 Kent State shootings with the woman crying out over a body of a student who was shot by the National Guard. When Life reran the photograph, the editors took the liberty of removing a fence post that stood out above the woman's head, for mere cosmetic reasons.
The impression I got from many of my peers was that it was okay for the editors to do that because "it didn't change the meaning" and because "it looks better." I was appalled by this consensus and prayed at the end of my bed that night that all those comments came from PR majors and that real journalism majors slept in that day.
"I teach by example," said Patrick Plaisance, a professor of media ethics for the journalism program and my JT320 professor. "Ideally I want to be able to present myself as a person who is ethical in everything I do."
Plaisance feels media has a special role in society, and because of that role journalists have to be conscious of the questions of ethics that come with the job. He said it's not the black-and-white part of the job that he is worried about, it's the murky gray areas that journalists deal with everyday. In the case of Jayson Blair, ethics was not a concern because what the New York Times reporter did by falsifying sources and stories was just wrong, no question.
There is currently a trend nationwide for specific courses in media ethics, Plaisance said, and it is because teaching students how to arrive at answers of complex questions is becoming more and more important.
He said it is not his job to teach students what is right and what is wrong; rather, teach strategies to students to think through ethical questions and how to arrive to ethical decisions.
Just like the professional world of journalism, the world of business is not filled with black-and-white decisions but more of the confusing and murky grayness. The world of business right now is slowly licking it wounds from the Worldcom and Enron bite (and Qwest looks like it is going to attack soon, too). Just as with Blair, those decisions made by companies' executives was a black-and-white case but what about those decisions where there isn't a manual book to look up the answer?
In order to keep its accreditation with The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, the college must require undergrads to take a business ethics course and it also incorporates ethics in its freshmen orientation class, but how does a professor teach ethics to students whose major is all about the money?
Dr. O.S. Ferrell, is the co-director of business ethics and social issues at the College of Business at CSU.
"In business, we look at the ethical decision making from an organization perceptive; corporate culture restricts an individual making individual decisions," said Ferrell, who is helping to put a Business Ethics Symposium that the college is sponsoring.
He gave the example that a new employee couldn't walk in Hewlett Packard and tell them what to do. If Enron and Worldcom did anything, they highlighted the fact of difficult business decision-making is considered ethical in our society, Ferrell said.
It seemed to me after talking with Ferrell that business students are being given deputy badges while in college to face to in lawless West that is the business world of today. Good luck.
There was one person in my search of ethics who put me at ease. Meet Bernard Rollin, a professor of philosophy, who teaches veterinary ethics at the College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Science.
Rollin said a big ethical challenge for vet students is making decisions by the seat of your pants because society has not set values for animals. Unlike making unethical decisions in the business or journalism world, there are not rigid rules in animal medicine.
True, there are crimes against cruelty towards animals but there is not law against a woman who brings in her dog to be put down because it no longer fits the color scheme of her house, as in the case Rollin told me that made me quiver.
Just like Plaisance, Rollin said his job isn't to teach what is right or wrong to students, he said that students didn't know that by the time they reached college, "we are out of luck," - I have taken the liberty of leaving out a word before out.
And I agree with him completely. If professors have to be given the task of teaching right and wrong to students who are 18, 19 years old call it a day and hope there is something good on television, but I think Rollin's philosophy is on track; teach students how to reach those hard ethical decisions that life hands out in unmarked fast-food doggy bags.
Rollin is an optimist and as made me one as well. He said there is no question about the role of ethics in students getting better. The university no longer performs repeated surgery on animals because of students' initiative.
"Young minds are more open to new ideas," said Rollin, who feels he has been successful in his teachings.
Hopefully there are people like Rollins, Ferrell and Plaisance in every practice and discipline at CSU so when that young freshmen who is sitting in his or her class can hear the "e" word every once in awhile and can let people like me sleep a little better at night.