CoSci students present industry ethics papers to panel of pros

For a class exercise, third year Texas A&M construction science students grappled with industry ethics issues then faced a panel of industry professionals and a nationally renowned business ethics expert who peppered them with questions about their responses to ethical quandaries.

Initially working on the assignment in teams of four, students in a Construction Industry Professional Studies class identified and developed responses to ethical predicaments presented in a hypothetical scenario. The team reports were reviewed and ranked by construction science faculty members Melissa Daigneault, Debra Ellis, George Eustace and Jim Smith, who selected the top eight reports for oral presentations on March 31 to the panel of experts.

Ethics panel participants were:

• Marianne Jennings, professor of legal and ethical studies in the W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University and author of “The Seven Signs of Ethical Collapse: How to Spot Moral Meltdowns in Companies … Before It’s Too Late” and numerous other books on business ethics;
• Construction industry veteran Larry Fickel of MWH, a former president of the Department of Construction Science’s Construction Industry Advisory Council,
• David Fleming, vice president of Sundt, which has a regional office in San Antonio, and
• Kim Kobriger, managing partner, Lewis Realty Advisors.

The student team garnering top honors in the exercise included Matthew Crane, Scott Beatty, Robert Shields and Christine Nguyen.

Jennings, a highly sought speaker on business ethics, also delivered the keynote address at the Department of Construction Science Spring 2011 Awards Banquet held that evening at the College Station Hilton. Her presentation was delivered as part of the Texas A&M College of Architecture’s Dr. F.E. Giesecke 1886 Lecture Series honoring the founder of the university's architecture program. The series, which began in 2006, was established by Preston Geren, Giesecke’s grandson, and his wife Colleen '45 to bring outstanding, world-class speakers to the college.

While in visiting the college, Jennings also spoke with students on March 30 as part of the Construction Science Capstone Lecture Series.