Ethics Case 4A: Dealing With Deception

board members, we must have the courage to make ethical decisions and “become leaders in the service of truth,” as Sister Thomas puts it. In fact, a powerful indication of a healthy board is its ability to seek the truth in the face of unethical or destructive situations. If the majority of board members don’t agree that the behavior is unethical or destructive, there can be devastating consequences. Here are some of the experiences I have had with volunteer boards that presented opportunities for exercising moral courage.
Case 4A: Dealing with Deception
In the 1980s, I was an associate professor of English at a community college. One of my administrative duties was to launch a “Writing across the Curriculum” program, aimed at helping faculty
Assumptions Developed by Advisory Board
No. Assumption
1 The job of improving students’ writing is simply too complex, too time-consuming to be undertaken by any one course or any one discipline.
2 The act of writing can be a means whereby students can master the content of almost any course.
3 Teaching writing is not simply a matter of correcting spelling, improving syntax, or stamping out mistakes in usage, but rather the teaching of basic processes students will need to use in discovering what they wish to say.
4 Frequent short writing assignments can be effective means of engaging students in and helping them examine these processes.
5 Various writing assignments make various intellectual demands upon the writer — demands which, if identified and taught one at a time, can provide sound and effective strategies for writing.
6 An understanding of audience and purpose is basic to all types of discourse and, therefore, is basic to discourse in the disciplines as well.
7 If we make complete assignments that help students to understand the nature of the task, we clarify the criteria for ourselves as well as the
But to my surprise, before I could begin, an Assistant Dean arrived and announced, “This workshop has been cancelled and the faculty will not be paid.” She gave no explanation as to why the workshop had been cancelled. She simply made the announcement and left. We surmised that whatever funding had been allocated for Writing across the Curriculum had already been spent. Soon thereafter the administration changed hands, and no explanation was ever given. This lack of communication never resolved the feelings of deception and betrayal caused by broken promises to this dedicated group of faculty. I believe the situation could have been diffused (and even resolved) if the administration had simply been honest with the