Ethics must be integrated and sustained
Friday 9 November 2007
The 2007–2008 Gourlay Visiting Professor of Ethics in Business, Professor Laura Hartman, believes it is vitally important to model the integration of ethics in the academic and cultural life of students so that it carries forward into their professional life and careers. It is also critical that this modelling be sustained, year after year.
L to R: Assoc. Prof. Andrew McGowan, Professor Laura Hartman, Mr Andrew Gourlay, Mrs Louise Gourlay and Prof. John Seybolt at the welcome function at Trinity.
Professor Hartman, who is Associate Vice-President for Academic Affairs, and Professor of Business Ethics, at DePaul University, Chicago, says the Gourlay Professorship achieves both these goals for students at Trinity College and the Melbourne Business School (MBS) – students who are future global and local business leaders.
Hailed as a ‘world first’, the Gourlay Visiting Professorship of Ethics in Business each year brings an internationally distinguished ethics lecturer to teach jointly at MBS and Trinity College. It was established at Trinity in 2005 through a $2.5 million endowment from retired stockbroker the late John Gourlay (TC 1954) and his wife, Louise, who were inspired by their belief that ‘the exercise of uncompromising integrity and morality is not only intrinsically desirable but also delivers improved and more certain business outcomes’.
After being welcomed to Trinity by the Warden at a reception in the Junior Common Room yesterday evening, Professor Hartman will be spending much of her 12-day visit teaching at the Melbourne Business School and meeting with senior business leaders. Trinity students will have an opportunity to engage more fully with Professor Hartman when she returns to the College for four weeks in July/August, 2008.