The Moral Compass and College Admissions Scandal The college admissions scandal dubbed “Operation Varsity Blues” raises questions about the integrity of the college admissions process across a broad spectrum of institutions. Who’s to blame for the admissions scandal? There’s enough blame to go around but the parents are front and... Read more →

Closing the “Teaching Gap” Recently, I’ve read a lot about what makes for a great professor. Having taught for 30+ years, I was very interested to see how I stacked up. I’ve always thought of myself as a good professor – at least in my field, Accounting. It is one... Read more →

Do College Students Really Care? The problem with teaching ethics to college students is they may not care. Some of my students ask me: Why should I care about being ethical now…when it seems people can get ahead in life by taking the easy way, which is not always the... Read more →

U.S. News Data is Skewed Towards the Richest Institutions Do you look at college rankings to decide which college to attend or where to send your kid? Stop it! It’s a waste of time and the information is not reliable. That’s the opinion of Valerie Strauss, education reporter for the... Read more →

What Ever Happened to the Fundamental Value of Academic Integrity? Having taught at the college level for over 30 years, I thought I had seen it all but along comes hoax scholarship – papers written by academics solely to get publications without regard to the accuracy of statements/facts in these... Read more →

Situational Ethics is Problematic on College Campuses Situational Ethics was pioneered by Joseph Fletcher. In situational ethics, right and wrong depend upon the facts of each situation rather than societal or cultural norms. There are no universal moral rules or rights – each case is unique and deserves a unique... Read more →

Should St. John’s University (Minnesota) Return the $300,000 Lindmark Endowment? This is an updated blog posted on my website earlier this week. It’s an intriguing question. When should a university be forced to return an endowment because it hasn’t been used for the designated purpose? A case in point is... Read more →

Issues Surrounding the Transfer of Technology Extensive transfer of technology from university and nonprofit laboratories to the commercial sector is an increasingly common occurrence in the U.S. Widespread university activity in technology commercialization began only with the passage of the Bayh-Dole Act in 1980. This legislation enabled universities, nonprofit research... Read more →

Are Student Evaluations a Useful Tool? Last week I read an article about why student evaluations of college instructors are not reliable and should no longer be used in performance evaluation decisions. The author claims, based on research, that student evaluations may be associated with the gender of the instructor.... Read more →

Should Colleges Drop the “D” Grade? Perhaps you’ve heard that a North Carolina Community College -- Stanly Community College – has decided to drop the “D” grade. Students will either be given a “C” grade,” which is most likely to happen, or given a “F” grade for the course. The... Read more →