In an effort to shed light on recent corporate scandals, professional and academic representatives gave an ethics panel discussion as part of this year's Academic Integrity Week.
"We really wanted to make students more aware of recent events by clarifying details...," said Event Co-Coordinator Jeb Gaybrick, a College and Wharton junior. "In order to prevent such scandals from happening we have to analyze the corporate state of the world today."
Drawing in almost 30 students, the panel covered topics ranging from principle-based accounting vs. rule-based accounting to the responsibility of individual stockholders.
"In class we learned that a lot of ethical problems and many of the circumstances behind people getting caught were not clear-cut," Wharton junior Vince Lun said. "Ethics may not have really been an issue before, so it might have been a good thing that all [the corporate controversy] happened in that we can learn from it."
One issue raised was social responsibility and whether companies could succeed as well as contribute to society and the environment. Corporate Responsibility and Ethics Lecturer Christopher Michaelson responded by saying that "doing good is good for business" and that there are financial branches of companies who would support the validity of his statement.
Students and staff also brought up many questions about mending the rift between investors and corporations, including suggestions on practices that the business culture could adopt.
"Part of the problem is the quarterly view that companies take," Neurology Professor Joan Mollman said. "Should Wall Street include something about the long-term health of companies?"
Referring to major structural reform of investment banking, Vice Chairman of Oliver Wyman and Company Andrew Kuritzkes replied that the real question was whether analysts should be so focused on quarterly reviews, and that "part of the fix would be to give corporate executives incentive to focus" on the five or 10-year term.
Though most of the reactions to the discussion were positive, some students walked away with mixed feelings.
"I thought it was really interesting but some answers were really to be expected," Engineering sophomore Maeesha Merchant said. "I wish some of the panelists were more honest, but it was really informative."
Yesterday's ethics panel was sponsored by the University Honor Council and Penn Career Services.
