Spring Break
Business ethics debated at Marquette
Investment ethics reflects rapid pace of change in finance industry, Enroll scandals
Mark Johnson - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Issue date: 3/7/07 Section: Career Fair
(MILWAUKEE) - MCT - The lessons in Room 450 depart from the numbers and formulas, the hard truths about money that Tom Kruse and the other finance majors have been learning at Marquette University in Milwaukee.
With the room lights low, 30 students watch a movie screen as the trader Nick Leeson, portrayed sympathetically by Ewan McGregor, hides a colleague's mistake and starts down the steep ethical slope that will lead to the loss of $1.3 billion and the collapse of his employer, Barings Bank.
"What do you think of his motives and his ethics as opposed to, say, the Enron guys?" asks Sarah Peck, the 48-year-old associate professor teaching Marquette's investment ethics class. Can there be degrees of ethical conduct? In this room, answers aren't scribbled on a blackboard.
"This isn't the normal finance class," Kruse says, "where you either have the right number or you don't, you're making money or you're losing money."
In ethics, there's room for discussion and even gray areas.
Faced with a question - not a formula - the students debate. Was Leeson protecting his colleague or himself? Did his actions hurt as many people as those of the Enron executives?
"Regardless of the scale, you're fraudulent," says Charlie Weber, a 22-year-old studying economics and finance. "You're doing something, knowing you're hiding the truth in order to make yourself look better. . . . It might be a different scale, but that doesn't mean it's worse or better."
Marquette introduced the investment ethics class last year, an offering rare for undergraduates but one that reflects both the rapid pace of change in the finance industry and the scandals of recent years.
As Peck says, "When you get new products and markets for things, there are always opportunities for people to behave badly."
What's ethical becomes a moving target.
The decision to offer the new course coincided with Marquette's selection as a program partner by the non-profit Chartered Financial Analyst Institute. The partnership, one of just six involving universities worldwide, links courses taught at Marquette to the CFA professional standards and examinations. Passing the exams is a highly regarded credential for financial analysts.
With the room lights low, 30 students watch a movie screen as the trader Nick Leeson, portrayed sympathetically by Ewan McGregor, hides a colleague's mistake and starts down the steep ethical slope that will lead to the loss of $1.3 billion and the collapse of his employer, Barings Bank.
"What do you think of his motives and his ethics as opposed to, say, the Enron guys?" asks Sarah Peck, the 48-year-old associate professor teaching Marquette's investment ethics class. Can there be degrees of ethical conduct? In this room, answers aren't scribbled on a blackboard.
"This isn't the normal finance class," Kruse says, "where you either have the right number or you don't, you're making money or you're losing money."
In ethics, there's room for discussion and even gray areas.
Faced with a question - not a formula - the students debate. Was Leeson protecting his colleague or himself? Did his actions hurt as many people as those of the Enron executives?
"Regardless of the scale, you're fraudulent," says Charlie Weber, a 22-year-old studying economics and finance. "You're doing something, knowing you're hiding the truth in order to make yourself look better. . . . It might be a different scale, but that doesn't mean it's worse or better."
Marquette introduced the investment ethics class last year, an offering rare for undergraduates but one that reflects both the rapid pace of change in the finance industry and the scandals of recent years.
As Peck says, "When you get new products and markets for things, there are always opportunities for people to behave badly."
What's ethical becomes a moving target.
The decision to offer the new course coincided with Marquette's selection as a program partner by the non-profit Chartered Financial Analyst Institute. The partnership, one of just six involving universities worldwide, links courses taught at Marquette to the CFA professional standards and examinations. Passing the exams is a highly regarded credential for financial analysts.
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