|
Thanks to all the subscribers to my Newsletter. My Fall 2017 Newsletter deals with ethical challenges facing higher education. It seems as though our universities have morphed into places where free speech is limited to safe zones and some of those exercising their free speech rights are shouted down by others with an opposing view. The underlying cause is a lack of civility and the promotion of politically correct speech that now consumes many colleges and universities.
For some time now I’ve been concerned about these issues and the broader questions of whether ethics can be taught, and what our role, as educators, is in preventing cheating. I hope you enjoy the four brief pieces that explain some of my concerns. I plan to follow up the Newsletter with a new blog on ethics in higher education.
Please visit my
website
to find out more about my activities. Visit my other social media accounts below. You can read my current blog on
"Should Colleges Teach Civil Discourse"
by clicking on the Blog link at the top of my website.
|
|
|
Known as “The Ethics Sage” to many, with a reputation as an expert in ethics, Dr. Steven Mintz is a Professor Emeritus from Cal Poly State University in San Luis Obispo. He received the Accounting Exemplar Award from the Public Interest Section of the American Accounting Association in 2015. His blog, Ethics Sage, was recognized as number 49 out of 100 top philosophy blogs and one of the top 30 blogs on Corporate Social Responsibility. Steve shares insights into business ethics through his Workplace Ethics Advice blog and special take on ethics in colleges and universities in a new blog, Higher Ed Ethics Watch, that begins next month.
Steve’s accomplishments include:
- Dozens of research papers published on ethics.
- Author of a textbook use in many colleges and universities, Ethical Obligations and Decision Making in Accounting: Text and Cases.
- Developer of courses for continuing education in ethics and business and accounting ethics.
- Speaker on ethics and professional responsibility.
- Litigation consultant and expert witness on ethics matters.
|
|
|
Sanctuary Campuses, DACA Students, and the Government
|
As our colleges and universities begin the new academic year, it makes sense to consider one of the hot topics on campus. No, it’s not whether we should go to war with North Korea or whether white nationalists have a right to speak their mind even if their message is offensive to most of us. The hot topic is whether a college campus should become a sanctuary campus. The idea is to adopt
policies
to protect undocumented students by refusing to allow ICE agents on campus without a warrant; not to gather information on or sharing students’ immigration status; and providing tuition support to DACA students. The issue is contentious and some state governors are threatening to cut off funding to universities that designate themselves as sanctuary campuses. At the federal level, Congress is considering whether strip schools of billions of dollars in federal financial aid unless they start cooperating with authorities.
The issue of funding for sanctuary campuses is different than what to do about DACA students. DACA takes on increased importance given the Trump administration's decision to end the program. Congress must act now to protect DACA students who trusted the government to allow them to stay, get an education, and works towards U.S. citizenship. The government has a moral obligation to help these students. It made a promise to them and promises should be kept.
|
What is the purpose of a University Education?
What is the purpose of a university education? The question is not easily answered. For many years it was considered a place that valued an open environment, welcoming of all opinions, and rigorous academic debate.
Today,
college campuses are places where free speech is limited to so-called “safe zones,” where students can shield themselves from uncomfortable or dissenting viewpoints.
I am encouraged that a backlash may be forming on some college campuses where professors communicate with students urging them to keep open their minds and to be unafraid of challenging conventional wisdom on campus. The professors say: “In today’s climate, it’s all-too-easy to allow your views and outlook to be shaped by dominant opinion on your campus or in the broader academic culture. The danger any student – or faculty member – faces today is falling into the vice of conformism, yielding to groupthink.”
Historically, universities valued civility, fostered a climate of mutual respect, and symbolized a place where divergent ideas could be discussed without fear of reprisals. Today, speakers are shouted down or prevented from speaking their mind and students retreat to their safe zones to debate issues, albeit with others of a similar view. I worry how these students will function in a workplace that promotes diversity of thought. My take is that colleges and universities have lost their moral compass by not fighting for free speech, even for those with offensive points of view. Instead, our colleges and universities have morphed into bastions of political correctness.
|
|
Can Ethics be Taught?
For over thirty years I have been challenged on my point of view that ethics should be taught to college students. Some claim ethics can’t be taught and to try to do so is a fool’s errand. Others contend that one’s ethics are formed at a young age and there is nothing we can do, as college professors, to change that. Still others say it isn’t the role of a university to tell students what is right or wrong. I’ve heard it all and answer these challenges to my own view that ethics not only should be taught but must be taught by insisting that while it is necessary to teach ethics, it is insufficient to do so just in one course. Teaching ethics in just one course sends the message that ethics is not important in other areas of life and in other activities that students might encounter after graduation. Ethics should be integrated throughout the curriculum. All too many colleges and universities require one course in ethics – i.e. philosophy of ethics – and never discuss it again unless a professor is an adherent to moral philosophy.
Can ethics be taught to college students? Yes, but that doesn’t mean students will embrace the message any more than they might of multicultural studies or a course on capitalism and political economy. The point is we must try to guide students to make decisions about right and wrong; good and bad by considering each person’s rights, the consequences of decisions, and how justice plays an important role in today’s society. Personally, I believe it is better to have tried and failed than never to have tried at all.
|
|
Who is Responsible for Cheating in College?
Academic cheating is prevalent today in our colleges and universities. Cheating includes copying an assignment, lifting answers from a classmate’s exam, bringing an identical exam or answers to a multiple-choice exam to the test, having notes or other resources (calculators, handhelds, note cards) not allowed by the teacher, including any comments or key words written on hands, hat bills, under wristwatches, or entered into smart phone or calculator memories.
Back in 2012, Harvard forced dozens of students to leave in its largest cheating scandal in memory. The “cheating” occurred in a class where half of the 125 students were suspended because they supplied identical answers (right down to typographical errors in some cases), indicating they had written them together or plagiarized them. Some students claimed that the similarities in their answers were due to sharing notes or sitting in on sessions held by the same teaching assistant who ran discussion groups, graded assignments, and advised them on interpreting exam questions. Nevertheless, the first page of the exam instructed that while it was open book, open note, and open Internet, in all other regards the exam falls under similar guidelines that apply to in-class exams -- students should not discuss the exam with others including resident tutors and writing centers.
Educators need to consider what their role should be in making it more difficult for students to cheat. All too often many of us use the same exam term after term. Copies of these exams fill the files of fraternities and sororities and are easily available to all who choose to go down that path. Some professors take their exam questions from Instructor Resources (i.e. a test bank) that are readily available online. You don’t believe me? Just Google the test bank you want for the assigned textbook and see what comes up. I did it for my ethics textbook,
Ethical Obligations and Decision Making in Accounting: Text and Cases
, and I found that for $50 I could buy the test bank. How ironic is that: An ethics course where the students buy the test bank.
As educators, we must take responsibility for our role in preventing cheating by making up our own exams, monitoring students during exams, changing the exams each term, and not returning exams to students. We model ethical behavior by building in controls to prevent academic cheating much like a business builds in internal controls to prevent financial fraud.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
