From the Program Director

Welcome to the Ethics in Business Education Program website! Our program is funded by former Trustee Michael T. Smith ’65 and his wife, Jane E. Smith. Dr. Patrick Kelly from the Accountancy Department serves as the program director.

The program was founded in 2015, and we are encouraged by our progress in addressing our three identified goals. To build on topics addressed in the Development of Western Civilization Program, we identified themes related to ethics, which has provided a basis for the study of ethics in business courses. We have also fostered a focus on ethics in our core business curriculum.

We have supported faculty development in ethics by sponsoring development workshops to assist faculty in teaching ethics related course material, developing ethics cases, and supporting ethics scholarship. We have also supported the interdisciplinary course titled “Sustainability and Social Value” offered periodically since 2015.  During the 2019 fall semester, we hosted a Teaching Business Ethics – Best Practices Workshop, for faculty members at Providence College and other colleges. We are also developing ethics cases that faculty can use in their classes.

A significant focus of our program is to support student co-curricular activities in ethics. We have supported student participation in the Eller Case Competition at the University of Arizona and the Berg Cup Case Competition at the University of Pittsburgh. We were delighted when our Providence College team won the 2016 Berg Cup Case Competition with the best performance of the 40+ colleges and universities participating in that competition.

Our program also hosts both campus-wide ethics case competitions, along with the annual Regional Michael Smith Ethics Case Competition. Our next regional competition will be held online during the spring semester. The cases have centered on relevant ethics topics (self-driving vehicles, the National Football League’s response to Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, the opioid crisis, and student loan debt).

I welcome your feedback on our program.  Please e-mail me at pkelly@providence.edu.  Go Friars!

Sincerely,