Accounting honor society Beta Alpha Psi and business honor society Beta Gamma Sigma, will host a keystone program on Wednesday called “Steering Clear of the Slopes” in observance of Ethics Week 2010. The program will be at 4:30 p.m. in Taylor Auditorium in McCool Hall.
Associate Dean of the College of Business Paul Grimes said last fall Lynne Richardson, Dean of the College of Business, hosted a meeting of all the business school deans from across the state of Mississippi. The decision was made at this meeting to host a program regarding Ethics Week 2010 at all of their campuses during the week of Feb. 8.
“Beta Alpha Psi students have planned an interactive activity which will begin the program,” Grimes said. “That will be followed by a talk from Donald McCabe, professor of Management and Global Studies at Rutgers University. He is a well-known ethicist and specialist in ethical development.”
Grimes said after the program, a reception will be held in the atrium and door prizes will be given out for Barnes & Noble gift cards for MSU students. He said everyone is encouraged to attend the program.
There are also other events going on during the week regarding Ethics Week, Grimes said. The Economics Club and Omicron Delta Epsilon hosted a movie night Monday in recognition of Ethics Weeks.
Student representative of Beta Gamma Sigma and senior marketing major Stephanie Aanstoos said she thinks it is excellent that MSU is participating in Ethics Week.
“It is a great way to remind students the importance of behaving ethically and forming values that will last throughout a lifetime,” Aanstoos said. “It is one thing to know not to cheat in school, but when in the real world there are many different situations and opportunities to do the wrong things, it is important for students to learn now how to get out of these situations and be able to say no when asked to behave unethically.”
Beta Alpha Psi best practices coordinator and senior accounting major, Candance McGee said she is really excited about leading the presentation by Beta Alpha Psi.
“I can tell you that the group of presenting Beta Alpha Psi students – Liz Krusemark, Ashley Kershaw, Michael Little and me – are really excited about this opportunity,” she said. “We have been working on this project since last semester for a competition with Beta Alpha Psi, so Mississippi State’s support of Ethics Week 2010 was an unexpected opportunity for us.”
McGee said the presentation uses information from Aaron Beam’s book, “HealthSouth: The Wagon to Disaster.” Beam was a co-founder and CFO of HealthSouth and also a co-perpetrator of a $2.5 billion fraud.
“The goal of our project is to illustrate to future professionals how easily they can find themselves in an ethical dilemma and how far-reaching the impact of their decision-making can be; and how situational ethics training may help prevent future frauds like the one at HealthSouth,” she said.
McGee said that Ethics Week will be a good start to promoting ethics in our generation of future professionals but that it will have little impact on its own.
“My hope is that colleges continue to promote ethics through continued hands-on ethics training – far beyond one week dedicated to talking about ethics,” McKee said.