By
Seventy-two graduating Carroll Graduate School of Management students participated in the school’s inaugural Oath of Ethical Conduct ceremony last Thursday in Fulton Hall.
In partnership with a number of graduate schools of business from around the country, the CGSOM students pledged to lead in the interests of the greater good and create value responsibly and ethically.
University President William P. Leahy, SJ, and CSOM Associate Dean Jeffrey Ringuest spoke at the event, along with Robert Winston ’60, namesake and benefactor of the school’s Winston Center for Leadership and Ethics. Graduate Management Association President George Herz led the oath.In his remarks, Ringuest explained the context for the introduction of the oath as an outgrowth of a student initiative to define CGSOM’s core values: honesty and integrity, mutual respect, pursuit of excellence, and personal accountability.
Although other business schools have implemented an oath of ethical conduct for its MBAs, Ringuest said, CGSOM students “wanted to do something more: They wanted to open this initiative up to all of our graduate students, not just our MBAs, and they wanted to not just stand in solidarity with MBAs at other schools around the world but to reaffirm the core values of the Carroll School graduate programs.”
Christopher Grillo, a Connell School of Nursing administrative assistant and CGSOM student who co-organized the ceremony, described the event as “very fulfilling. The core values of the Carroll School are not just something on a piece of paper or at the bottom of an e-mail but ideals by which we live. Our values, whatever they may be, are challenged constantly.
“It’s important to have a clear understanding of one’s values and be confident enough to articulate those publicly. That’s what 72 students did last week and they have support from one another as they move on in their careers.”