At DePaul, business law is required in our MBA program, but ethics is
not . . .  (it is theoretically integrated into several of the core
courses).  Our undergraduate program requires both, by the way.

Laura


Laura P. Hartman
Associate Vice President, Academic Affairs
Professor of Business Ethics
DePaul University Executive Offices
1 E. Jackson, CNA 22
Chicago, IL 60604
312-362-6569
cell: 312-493-9929

>>-----Original Message-----
>>From: Academy of Legal Studies in Business (ALSB) Talk
>>[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Bill McDevitt
>>Sent: Saturday, October 08, 2005 8:01 AM
>>To: [log in to unmask]
>>Subject: Re: law and ethics treatment in MBA programs
>>
>>Dan:
>>
>>         In St. Joe's professional MBA program, ethics is a separate
>>3-credit course that's required. It's usually taught by Management
faculty
>>with a background in ethics or by business law faculty.
>>
>>         Business Law is a 3-credit elective in the MBA program.
>>
>>                         Bill
>>
>>At 12:34 AM 10/8/2005, you wrote:
>>>ALSBers,
>>>
>>>I am interested in how many credits MBA programs around the nation
devote
>>>to ethics, and how often ethics (in a *substantial, explicit* way) is
>>>combined with law, or another topic, in the same course.  Do any of
you
>>>have MBA programs where ethics is a separate course in the program?
If
>>>ethics is a separate course, how many credits is assigned to it, and
who
>>>teaches it?  is it the business law faculty, or bus. law faculty plus
>>>non-bus.law faculty, or only non-bus. law faculty, or ...?  Do the
>>>philosophy department's faculty have any role to play in teaching
ethics
>>>in your MBA program?
>>>
>>>In our new MBA program, each of our courses is 2 credits, and meets
at
>>>night.  The classes meet for 8 weeks, for 3.25 hours (minus a
5-minute
>>>break) per week (about 25.3 hours total).  Law and ethics are
combined
>>>into one required course (called Legal and Ethical Environment of
>>>Business.).  There has arisen a disagreement among the MBA faculty as
to
>>>how much time should be devoted to law and how much to ethics in this
>>>course.   We are not currently assessing legal skills, abilities or
>>>knowledge in our current MBA program assessment scheme.  Some MBA
faculty
>>>have said AACSB does not require that law be assessed in an MBA
program.
>>>
>>>I am concerned that law is getting a smaller role than it should have
in
>>>our MBA program and that that role may shrink even further.
>>>
>>>In addition to the questions above, I am wondering what role exactly
does
>>>AACSB think business law education should play in an MBA program?  is
it
>>>true that AACSB is more concerned about teaching MBA students ethics
than
>>>teaching them legal principles, skills of legal analysis, etc.?
>>>
>>>One of my colleagues, an extremely bright and reasonable person who
has
>>>published articles with legal aspects, said (if I understood
correctly)
>>>that if managers act ethically, they will automatically be acting
>>>legally.  Therefore, teaching business students law was less
important
>>>than teaching them ethics (or at least I *think* this professor was
>>>suggesting that conclusion).  What do you all think about those
propositions?
>>>
>>>Thanks for any info you can provide.
>>>
>>>Dan Levin
>>>--
>>>Daniel A. Levin, JD, MBA
>>>Associate Professor of Business Law
>>>Minnesota State University, Mankato
>>>Dept. of Accounting & Business Law
>>>Morris Hall 150
>>>Mankato, MN 56001
>>>507.389.1827
>>>[log in to unmask]
>>>[log in to unmask]
>>
>>William J. McDevitt, Esq., J.D.
>>Chair & Associate Professor
>>Saint Joseph's University
>>Dept. of Management
>>5600 City Avenue
>>Phila., PA  19131-1395
>>Phone: 610/660-1634
>>    (Fax: 610/660-1229)
>>[log in to unmask]