SPRING 2009

Focusing on business ethics

Prisoner 52071019 has some advice he’d like to share with Shorter College students. The convicted white-collar criminal will have his chance on April 23 when he, also known as Walt Pavlo, becomes the first speaker in the Hopkins Institute for Business Ethics Lectureship Series at Shorter. Mr. Pavlo, author of Stolen Without a Gun, spent time in prison for his involvement in fraud at MCI. His speaker’s bio describes his message as “a cautionary tale for those faced with ethical decisions in the workplace.”

Dr. Robert “Dub” Darville, dean of Shorter’s School of Business Administration, explains that having students hear from individuals like Mr. Pavlo offers meaningful insight into instruction on business ethics. “We have been using Stolen Without a Gun as a text in our accounting fraud courses. Mr. Pavlo is excited to share his experiences at Shorter because he always considered himself a very moral, Christian person. He warns that it is often easy for even good people to make a series of wrong choices that start them down a slippery slope. That’s an important message for students and, truly, all of us to hear.”

Mr. Pavlo’s lecture is funded by the Hopkins Institute for Business Ethics, established in the fall of 2008 thanks to a generous gift from a Shorter College trustee and his wife. Col. and Mrs. Harvard Hopkins pledged $200,000 toward the establishment of the Hopkins Institute, which is housed in the college’s School of Business Administration.

The Hopkins Institute will be a significant point of distinction for the college, according to Shorter President Dr. Harold E. Newman. “Col. and Mrs. Hopkins have made a gift that will have a transformational impact on Shorter students and on the communities in which those students eventually work and serve. Through their generous support, the Hopkins are enabling Shorter to have a much larger impact in promoting ethical behavior. Their gift is also a tangible example of the trustees’ caring for Shorter College and our students.”

From left: Dr. Robert "Dub" Darville, Col. and Mrs. Harvard Hopkins, and Dr. Harold E. Newman

A portion of the Hopkins’ gift will fund the annual ethics seminar, which will feature notable individuals in government, education, industry, medicine or other fields who are known as ethical leaders or, like Mr. Pavlo, who have unique insights to share on this topic.

“A central lesson we want students to understand from these seminars and from all of our business ethics teaching is that it is possible to be ethical and successful at the same time,” Dr. Darville said. “This is a vital conversation to have with our students in these days after Enron, WorldCom, Tyco and moving forward to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. People are looking for individuals to be leaders who exhibit ethical decision-making, and Shorter, as a Christian institution, wants to be a voice promoting the importance of ethics instruction and practice. The Hopkins, through their generosity, are helping to make that desire into reality.”