DeWITT — Le Moyne College recently announced that it is the new home of a program focused on ethics in business. And the program cited the school’s work in creating the Jesuit Case Series, a group of business cases with “particular attention to issues of ethics, leadership, and sustainability,” in choosing Le Moyne to house […]
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DeWITT — Le Moyne College recently announced that it is the new home of a program focused on ethics in business.
And the program cited the school’s work in creating the Jesuit Case Series, a group of business cases with “particular attention to issues of ethics, leadership, and sustainability,” in choosing Le Moyne to house the organizations.
The Pedro Arrupe S.J. Program of Christian Social Ethics in Business is now operating as part of Le Moyne’s Madden School of Business. The program will be housed under the Center for Reflective Leadership and Business Ethics, one of three centers within the Madden School of Business.
The Arrupe program includes the chapters of the Woodstock Business Conference (WBC), which Le Moyne describes as a “key component” of Arrupe and the signature project housed within the program.
“They (the programs) chose Le Moyne,” says James (Jim) Joseph, the incoming dean of the Madden School of Business.
Le Moyne will install Joseph, the former president and CEO of Oneida Ltd., as dean in early 2014, he says.
The Arrupe program previously operated at the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University, which closed as of June 30.
An “anonymous foundation in Europe that supports Catholic initiatives” approved the move because it controls the endowment for the program, says Joseph.
That foundation’s board met in Europe on July 9 and voted to transfer the seven-figure endowment from Georgetown to Le Moyne, Joseph says.
How it came about
Joseph learned about the program during a two-day international conference that John Fontana, a senior fellow of the Arrupe Program, conducted back in October, he says.
Fontana also now serves as the director of the WBC.
The WBC includes a total of 16 chapters, including those located in London, England and Winnipeg, Canada, according to the website for the Woodstock Theological Center. The WBC provides a network for exploring ideas related to the integration of faith and work, according to Le Moyne.
Joseph described the attendees as “bright, successful, caring, compassionate human beings that view business as a higher calling,” he says.
The attendees included representatives from the WBC chapter in Scranton, Pa., which is home to the University of Scranton, which, like Le Moyne, is a Jesuit college, according to Joseph.
The Scranton representatives invited Joseph to begin participating in their monthly meetings, which he has done. The dean of the University of Scranton’s Kania School of Business even asked Joseph to speak about the Jesuit Case Series.
After the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University announced earlier this year it would close at the end of June, the WBC and the Arrupe program needed a new home, Joseph says.
Citing the interest in the Jesuit Case Series, John Fontana, director of the WBC, asked if the organization could move to Le Moyne, and the school sees the Arrupe program and WBC chapters as coinciding with its vision for the Madden School of Business, according to Joseph.
“It is going to attract significant thought leaders and speakers to our campus that will speak on issues of business in society,” he says.
Le Moyne will maintain the existing 16 WBC chapters and will add new ones, including one in the Syracuse area, the school said.
The mission of the Arrupe Program in Social Ethics for Business is “to develop, refine, and communicate an empirically-based Christian social ethics for business,” according to the website for the Woodstock Theological Center.
Le Moyne’s Jesuit Case Series provides an opportunity for integration with the work of WBC chapters in the U.S and abroad, Le Moyne Provost Linda LeMura said in a news release.
In collaboration with 93 other Jesuit colleges and universities in the U.S. and around the world, the Madden School said it is creating a platform dedicated to the development and distribution of business cases with particular attention to issues of ethics, leadership, and sustainability.
“Working with their academic counterparts, WBC chapter members will be encouraged to share their stories in case-study format with Jesuit business-school students,” said LeMura.
Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com
