The Beginnings of Professional Ethics:
The College Campus

(highlights from “Professional Ethics Begin on the College Campus” by Candace de Russy, The Chronicle of Higher Education, September 19, 2003, B20)

De Russy defends the idea that the professions, as they educate their aspiring members on the college campus, should be the vehicles for teaching and maintaining the principles of integrity essential to each profession. Higher education must sustain professional standards.  She says, “The professoriate is a gatekeeper, determining a student’s first exposure to ethical standards, traditions, and the responsibilities of peer evaluation.”

De Russy, who is a member of the Board of Trustees of the State University of New York and a former professor of language and literature, notes that students are quick to notice irresponsible or unethical behavior in faculty. This behavior can be seen in such actions as showing favoritism, condoning or practicing plagiarism, and neglecting to show high regard for truth in teaching and research.

The author refers to the 1966 and 1987 “Statement on Professional Ethics” published by the AAUP which calls on professors to practice self-discipline, judgment, and intellectual honesty in using and transmitting knowledge. In her estimation, this principle precludes any use of political bias and moral subjectivism.

De Russy also has a word of caution for boards of trustees and regents, namely that they guard against attempting “to move institutions toward purely market values,” since the purpose of a college (to create and transmit knowledge) “cannot be fulfilled by the ordinary market exchange between a customer and service provider bent on making a profit.” She calls on trustees to be activists in making ethics “a living tradition, a day-to-day reality” in higher education—and suggests that they do this by establishing and financing workshops that address questions of ethics in the professions and in the classroom.

Her recommendations extend also to asking college presidents to provide reports describing the actions that have been taken to support education in ethics throughout the institution.

All of this activity, of course, is aimed toward returning to society a culture in which persons and professions aspire to the highest standards.

Last | Ethics Contents | Next