Programs & Workshops

History

Following the objective from DePaul's Vision Twenty12 to "Provide opportunities for all students to learn ethical systems and demonstrate ethical practice," the Institute created this initiative to help teach ethics at DePaul.

Since its inception in 2007, accomplishments have included:

• Ethics Audit — The Ethics Across the Curricula Committee conducted an extensive survey of the level of ethics education in all academic disciplines.
• Common Language Manual — A sub-committee drafted a common language manual for ethics education, so that faculty could have a common glossary for the discourse on teaching ethics. Download the manual.
• Faculty Workshops — Perhaps the greatest of the committee's accomplishments has been the faculty workshops held in the spring, where more than 200 faculty members have been trained in ethics and values pedagogy as well as given assistance in developing their own ethics curriculum. These two- to three-day workshops aim to bring ethical instruction and perspective into all areas of study. Specialized workshops are also held and in the past have included topics like artificial intelligence.

Where We Are Now

• Faculty Workshops — Ethics Across the Curriculum (EAC) is a renewed and reconfigured faculty workshop devoted to exploring the trending ethics topics that faculty in all disciplines may wish to integrate into course curricula. Workshops are held in the spring and feature experts leading discussions and activities, and offering a small honorarium to each attendee. Keep an eye out for an email from the Office of Academic Affairs for the next workshop. Workshops are small, personal sessions, with a limit of 30 attendees.
• Certification — The EAC workshop is an elective in the Office of Teaching and Learning Certificate Program.

In 2008, Professor Emerita Laura Hartman and Patricia Werhane, former Wicklander Chair of Business Ethics and managing director of the Institute for Business and Professional Ethics, developed ethics modules for management courses. Faculty were given materials, including articles, slides, assignments, suggested teaching methods and learning objectives.

The learning objectives in the modules included giving students decision models that would enable them to reason and critically analyze ethical issues they would be facing in the workplace when they leave DePaul.  

Click here to see the applications of these modules in connection with undergraduate or MBA programs.

The Institute hosted its first corporate roundtable in 2012 seeking to provide an environment for intimate discussion among leading Chicago business professionals and learn more about what the Institute could provide to the business community. The discussion also developed into a sounding board for the participants to really consider similar issues that arise in their companies. Subsequent roundtable topics of discussion have included small and medium-sized enterprises with attendance by Katherine Kirsch, Chief Marketing Officer, SISU Global Health; Carolyn Yurina, CEO, SISU Global Health; Therese Fauerbac, CEO, The Northridge Group, Inc.; Brian LaPelusa, Owner, LaPelusa Home Improvement, Inc.; Gina Buda, President, Progressive Truck Driving School, Inc and other business leaders.

The Institute for Business & Professional Ethics has partnered with the Union League Club of Chicago’s Public Affairs Committee (PAC) to host an ongoing lecture and speaking series. Each event focuses on an important business ethics topic followed by a Q&A segment from the audience. The series is held at the Union League Club of Chicago building in the Loop. Other lectures in the series include:

"Heartificial Intelligence: Embracing Our Humanity to Maximize Machines," a conversation with author John C. Havens, in collaboration with the Union League Club of Chicago Author's Group series

"The Ethics of Bitcoin: Can the Dark Web’s Currency Go Mainstream?," Lara Tan Bhala

"Journalism Ethics in the Era of Fake News.," Flynn McRoberts, Jean Marie Brown, Jim Kirk and Rick Jasculca

"Artificial Intelligence and Human Resources," Claudia Saran, Erich Dierdoff

The Institute and co-sponsors, DePaul DECA, host an event during the winter session for students to compete in a case competition. Teams of two present solutions to business cases to business professionals. The top team in each level is awarded a monetary prize.