Some notes on the marinalization of the field.
 
Business ethics and business & society instructors suffer a similar problem.  T
hey too tend to be marginalized by the rest of the b-school and the general aca
demic community.  "Anybody can teach business ethics."  And of course, recent A
ACSB guidelines are provoking as much as a problem for them as for BLAW folks.
 
Thus it was interesting to see that Portland State is trying to combine BLAW an
d B&S.  We are going to be doing that next year at Penn State.  It is interesti
ng to note that at the main campus the course will be team taught by both BLAW
and B&S instructors.  The rest of the university system (except for PSU-Erie) w
ill be taught through "distance learning" by the same group.  At my campus, PSU
-Erie, I will be teaching the entire course.
 
Question #1.  Is this a trend?  Is anybody else out there talking about combini
ng these types of courses?  Does this combining of courses give schools the mos
t economical way of meeting the admittedly vague standards set by the AACSB?
 
Question #2.  Who should teach this course?  Are we going to have the B&S prof
being the primary instructor with the "downtown" lawyer being called in for a f
ew days?  Are we going to have team teaching with equal responsibility and stat
us given to the BLAW and B&S instructor?
 
From my viewpoint, these questions (driven primarily by economics) may lead to
increased friction between BLAW and B&S types.  Any comments?