From the Director

Dr. Daniel E. Wueste

We’re pleased to be publishing another issue of RIE’s Issues and Perspectives. Once again we have included brief articles that report on some of the activities of the Rutland Institute and the International Center for Academic Integrity as well as some food for thought and prompts for discussion via links to a rich and varied collection of articles in the section, “Ethics Challenges and Responses.”

I shared one of these prompts— the case of Centenary College’s decision to close “its satellite business schools in China and Taiwan after discovering rampant cheating among local students”—with my summer session students in Business Ethics. The case raises many questions and flags issues that colleges and universities in the U.S. and Australia, for example, need to consider carefully as they move to take advantage of opportunities they see in China and elsewhere. The students (who are undergraduates) were quick to say that the stakes were very high for Centenary College: the integrity of the school and the degrees it awards were on the line. They talked about how opportunities in China for schools like Centenary College present real challenges. And they pointed to a reason for saying this that is easily missed when people focus narrowly on the reported cheating, namely, tension between the need to raise revenue and a commitment to academic integrity. Needless to say, I was pleased with the discussion in class. I want to encourage you to share your thoughts about this case or any of the others with your friends or other readers of Issues and Perspectives.

Two pieces here, “Connecting the Dots with Upstate Business and Education,” and “The Many Sides of Success of EMRGE,” will give you a good sense of what has been happening on the outreach front and the promise of the partnering opportunities that Linda Gallicchio has been working to solidify. In the next issue we’ll report on our participation in a Leadership Summit for High Potential and Emerging Leaders to be held at Clemson at the Falls. The 5-Day leadership summit was designed by a diverse consortium of industry leaders brought together by Laurie Haughey and her team in Professional Advancement and Continuing Education (PACE) at Clemson http://odce.clemson.edu/Leadership%202010/wsa.html . “Clemson’s Leadership Consortium identified 5 Traits of Leadership—Integrity, Objectivity, Creativity, Courage and Passion... A team of champion facilitators comprised of senior industry leaders and renowned Clemson University executive education experts will facilitate the week.” http://odce.clemson.edu/Leadership%202010/index.html We will be working with the participants in regard to the first trait, integrity; in particular, we will be sharing what we call a toolbox approach to ethical decision making.

We will be conducting the second section of our annual ethics across the curriculum seminar for faculty August 9-12 (the first section took place May 11-14). Once again we are pleased to have faculty from other schools joining us (Georgia Military College and Columbia College).

We appreciate your support and welcome your comments and suggestions.