Press Release

UA hosts international ethics competition

Twenty university teams converge at the Eller College of Management to examine business ethics issues

TUCSON, Ariz. – OCTOBER 23, 2006 –The focus of personal and professional ethics has for the moment shifted from corporations like Enron, WorldCom, and Tyco to the U.S. Congress, however the issue remains front and center. Early on, the Eller College of Management recognized the importance of teaching ethics in its business curriculum, and will give business students the opportunity to grapple with integrity issues at its upcoming International Ethics Case Competition.

For the fourth consecutive year, the Eller College will host its International Ethics Case Competition in Tucson. The event will take place at The University of Arizona’s McClelland Hall October 26 – 28. Designed to challenge students’ ethical reasoning and promote awareness of corporate social responsibility, this year’s competition has been expanded to include university teams not only from the United States, but also from China, Canada, and Mexico.

Paul Melendez, ethics program director and public policy lecturer at the Eller College of Management, explained the purpose of the event. “Business professionals are frequently faced with ethical dilemmas. In order to prepare students for this reality, the Eller College developed E-tegrity (Eller Integrity) which seeks to educate students about ethical decision-making. The ethics competition grew out of this program and has become a popular arena in which to practice the complexities of the discipline,” he explained.

The competition exposes students to a business ethics case they could face in their professional careers. Student teams analyze, present, and respond to questions posed by a panel of judges. The 2006 case study, written by Melendez for the competition, focuses on the current issue of illegal immigrants. Students will assume the roles of bank executives and examine the ethical complexities surrounding the creation of mortgage loan programs for a neighborhood comprised primarily of an illegal Latino population. Students will have to weigh the need for revitalizing a run-down neighborhood and producing a new revenue stream for an ailing bank with the questions of right and wrong.

Twelve judges from the corporate community will be charged with evaluating the quality of the students’ presentations. They will rate team performances on delivery, depth of analysis, persuasiveness, recommendations, and their responses to questions.

The format of the competition is similar to the NCAA basketball tournament bracket structure. Teams will submit executive summaries based on a case study prior to the competition and a panel will seed the teams into regions. Every effort is made to create ‘blind’ judging in order to eliminate the prejudice which may come from knowing a team’s university affiliation.

Sponsors for the 4th annual International Ethics Case Competition are Walgreens, KB Home, the Tucson Chapter of the Better Business Bureau, EthicsPoint, the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, Metro Restaurants, Cintas, Target Corporation, and Hewlett-Packard.

For more information about the program, please contact Paul Melendez at 520.621.3688.

Media note: Program agenda and case information are available by contacting Linda Herrick at lherrick@eller.arizona.edu.

Participating Institutions

• Arizona State University
• Brigham Young University
• Emory University
• Monterrey Institute of Technology
• and Higher Education (Mexico)
• Oregon State University
• Pennsylvania State University
• Rutgers University
• Seattle University
• Southwest University for Nationalities
• (Sichuan Province, China)
• The University of Arizona
• University of Florida
• University of Illinois
• University of New Mexico
• University of North Dakota
• University of Southern California
• University of Texas at Austin
• University of Utah
• University of Washington
• University of Wyoming
• Valdosta State University
• York University (Canada)

The Eller College of Management at The University of Arizona is internationally recognized for pioneering research, innovative curriculum, distinguished faculty, excellence in entrepreneurship, and social responsibility. U.S.News & World Report ranks the Eller undergraduate program #12 among public business schools and five of its departments are among the top 25 — Entrepreneurship, MIS, Marketing, Management and Organizations, and Accounting. The MPA program in the School of Public Administration and Policy ranks in the top 50. Financial Times ranks the Eller MBA full-time program #27 in the U.S. and #57 in the world, and Forbes ranks the program among the top 50 nationwide. The College leads the nation’s business schools in generating grant funds for research. In addition to a full-time MBA program, the Eller College offers an evening MBA program, and the Eller Executive MBA. The Eller College of Management supports more than 5,100 undergraduate and 600 graduate students on the UA campus in beautiful Tucson, Arizona.

Press Contact:
Liz Warren-Pederson, Eller College of Management
520.626.9547, news@eller.arizona.edu