What Ethics?  

An eccentric philosophy professor gave a one-question final exam after a semester dealing with a broad array of topics.  The class was already seated and ready to go when the professor picked up his chair, plopped it on his desk, and wrote on the board: "Using everything we have learned this semester, prove that this chair does not exist."

Fingers flew, erasers erased, and notebooks were filled in furious fashion. Some students wrote over 30 pages in one hour attempting to refute the existence of the chair. One member of the class, however, was up and finished in less than a minute.

Weeks later when the grades were posted, the rest of the group wondered how he could have gotten an "A" when he had barely written anything at all. His answer consisted of two words:

"What chair?"

It’s human nature I suppose.  Or it just may be that most are inclined to be negative, doubtful to the extreme, or simply not trusting.  And some of us as CPAs or lawyers were trained professionally to be skeptics…”cut the cards” kind of people.   Even the most recent indices of trust (Booth/Kellogg and Edelman) continue to reflect that five years removed from the trust crisis of 2008 we still have only slightly increased our confidence in our financial and corporate institutions.

“What ethics?” is still the predominant response I get when talking to groups and to many individuals about the vast majority of folk and companies who conduct themselves rightly.  And the responses follow a predictable pattern.

“What about that Madoff guy?”

“Yeah, that Walmart is bribing their way to business.”

“The Scooter Store (“Always do the right thing”) is selling electronic aids to people who don’t need them just to get the insurance payments.”

And on and on it goes.

And to be fair and discerning, we need to at least investigate and certainly determine what’s behind bribes, some scooter sales and determine if the entire company and all its employees should be disenfranchised and be held up as examples of cheats.

“What ethics?” is a fair question but one that should be posed ideally without the cynicism, “mind-made-up” attitude, and predisposition of guilt.

Let me tell you about an organization that responds well to “What ethics?”  Composed of hundreds of university students, on campus chapters of the Center for the Public Trust (www.centerforpublictrust) throughout the country study, search for, and seek to exemplify ethics, integrity and trust-enriching activities.

The student CPT organization includes  the following chapters:  Baruch College (NY, NY); Birmingham Southern College (Birmingham Southern (Birmingham, AL); Colorado State (Fort Collins, CO); Lipscomb University (Nashville, TN); Middle Tennessee State University (Murfreesboro, TN); New Mexico State University (Las Cruces, NM); Ohio University (Athens, OH); Rutgers University (Newark, NJ); University of Colorado (Colorado Springs, CO); University of Kentucky (Lexington, KY); University of New Mexico (Albuquerque, NM); University of Northern Colorado (Greeley, CO); University of Tennessee (Knoxville, TN); University of Utah (Salt Lake City, UT); University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY).  At this writing several other universities are nearing completion of procedures for student chapters.**

Each of these chapters has a common mission:  to promote ethical thinking in the developing character and conscience of students.  

The chapters compete against each other in such activities as an annual “ethics in action” video where original ethics themes and situations are developed, taped and presented.  The students meet on a regular basis, hear outside speakers encourage them, and join in other activities to keep them focused on sustaining a bedrock of integrity.

And that’s not all.  In the works is a national ethics certification course and examination which when completed by the students will evidence their unique achievement in an appropriate focus that responds most favorably to “what ethics?”  When you hire someone, wouldn’t it be a plus that the graduate not only had done well in her studies but also could demonstrate that he realizes the importance, the morality of telling the truth, being transparent, and being trustworthy?

University chapters of CPT will soon expand to 25, then 50, a hundred and beyond.  National ethics certification will one day be recognized as a significant and expected entry on an applicant’s resume.  After all, business folk and employers can assess fairly quickly one’s technical competency or at least his high likelihood of being proficient on the job.  But to have an applicant not only aver but in some measure evidence her focus on integrity is a meaningful differentiator.

Yes, we can keep our attention fixated on the scandals, the cheats, the liars and continue to wonder what happened to integrity and truth telling.  Or we could follow the example of some university students who positively march into the future taking integrity with them into the marketplace and “what ethics?” begins to transform to “what ethics!!”

David Costello

Ad astra per aspera

**If you, your company/firm or group of colleagues would like to sponsor a student chapter at your university of choice, contact Alfonso Alexander at NASBA (aalexander@nasba.org), President of the Center for the Public Trust for further information and details.