When the bubble burst after the insatiable ’90s, it did more than just create a small ripple in the marketplace, it rocked the business world to its very core. A tidal wave of high profile scandals and stock market losses of more than $7 trillion followed and have resulted not only in a crisis of confidence in corporate America, but in serious questioning of American business educators.

Now, as the federal government implements reforms measures such as the Sarbanes Oxley law, Temple’s Fox School of Business and Management is responding with a comprehensive approach, including a new required course for all its undergraduates.

The Fox School devoted an entire day to business ethics on Friday, April 23. It began with a focus on teaching, with a discussion among professors from Temple and other area colleges, business professionals, ethics consultants and academic advisors. Opening the conversation was Temple Beasley law professor Eleanor Myers, whose award-winning legal ethics course features simulations that put students in the hot seat, where they experience the difficulties of making tough choices under pressure.

After the teaching seminar, former Rite Aid President and CEO Tim Noonan spoke to our students. Mr. Noonan, who found himself entangled in Rite Aid's recent scandal, was vivid proof of the fact that accomplished people can come to regret their failure to realize when the clash between corporate culture and ethical values requires action.

For several years business ethics has been covered at the graduate and undergraduate levels at The Fox School, but recently the focus has intensified.

As Fox Ethics Committee Co-chair and Professor of Legal Studies Terry Halbert puts it, "Recent events have shown that when ethical problems go unrecognized or when an unethical culture is permitted to fester, the consequences for the companies involved and for their stakeholders can be disastrous. It's important for us to prepare our students to understand this reality, and to appreciate their potential to play a positive role within it."

Fox School Dean M. Moshe Porat, who has been instrumental in supporting improved ethics eduction at The Fox School adds, “Employers need our graduates to be skilled in identifying and managing ethical aspects of business. We already teach our students how to compete effectively in a free market. To highlight ethics in our curriculum is to provide a balancing perspective, not only on human behavior and potential, but on the future of capitalism itself.”