Campus Blogs

Students are on campus these days choosing their majors and registering for classes.  We had our biggest single day of early registration last month—about 110. Students are justifiably nervous about getting classes given the news from colleges all over the state.  Some schools are admitting fewer students (we are admitting more), and cutting class sections (we are adding as needed). For our students an early choice of classes means they will get more of their first choice classes. Later registration will mean they will have to accept what is still open, but they will get the courses they need—one of the benefits of independent higher education and why FPU undergrads graduate in four years. But there is a more basic choice that students make, and occasionally it hits the national news. David Brooks, columnist for the New York Times wrote this week on why the study of history and the humanities teach us things that the sciences (social and natural) cannot, and may even be economically beneficial.  In the Times the title was “History for Dollars,” and in the Fresno Bee “Why study of history pays off” (see http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/08/opinion/08brooks.html?ref=davidbrooks). His point is that life is not systematic, and that the theories and systems that attempt to explain how and why people and institutions act and work cannot grasp the complexity and, more importantly, the passions that drive us, all of which he calls “The Big Shaggy.” If we want to succeed, he argues, we need more than accounting, economics, biology, or psychology. We also need a look at the inexplicable events, persons and imaginations that have shaped our past and so our present through great works of art, literature and history. He points to the difference between being trained in a particular subject matter and its methodology, and being educated in a broader or deeper sense. He points to having the ability to make useful comparisons and see analogies, an imaginative grasp of possibilities, and learning when passions take over and science ends. (Some might argue that science is fueled by passions. Ask a scientist.) What is my point? Well, first, Brooks’ article is worth reading, and it is noteworthy when an argument like this makes the national news. But more importantly, it might help us to think about what we are doing when we choose our fields of study (or as parents and professors help students think through what they might want to study). When I speak to parents and new students on the days they arrive at FPU to register I explain that the major will get them their first job, and their general education (humanities and sciences pursued for knowledge of how science is done) gets them their second, third and fourth. I go further and say take a major that will get you a job or a profession; become a manager or accountant, a doctor or lawyer, or a researcher, or social worker. But take another major or a minor that will deepen your mind; study history, literature or philosophy, or art. It can be done both ways. Major in chemistry, and minor in history.  Or major in English, and minor in business. This is the kind of education that will help us grasp Brooks’ “Big Shaggy,” the unsystematic, passionate, unaccountable factors in life that we will encounter in whatever profession we enter.

Dear Ms. Fiorina, Thank you for speaking at the Sunbird Conservatives Conference last Saturday, April 17, at Fresno Pacific University.  We appreciate the time you took to join us. You and the other two senatorial candidates offered all of us a chance to get an early look at the positions you each endorse and your approach to governing.  You honored the Sunbird Conservative club with your presence, and I, as faculty advisor of the club, want to pass on my gratitude to you for bringing a thoughtful message to the 500 people in attendance when you spoke.  As you may have recognized there were “conservatives” of all stripes at the conference from Tea Partiers to party officials, from libertarians to neoconservatives. It was a delight to get all in one room for some passionate discussion of ideas, positions and policies. And I admire your for wanting to be a leader of such a group. Thank you for accepting the invitation from our students to join us. We hope you will visit us again as a Senator, as Congressman Devin Nunes did this year, to help us understand what happens in Washington and why we can’t seem to get water in the valley. But that is not why I am writing. I want to comment on a statement you made, and discuss an important idea.  Or, perhaps I just want o complain about something you said, and offer some advice—we professors are that way sometimes.  I know this may be annoying, but I offer it as constructively as I can. You opened your comments by saying that you graduated with a bachelor’s degrees in history and so you were not qualified to do anything.  When I heard these words my heart sank. Here I was, a history professor, in a university event center, attempting to guide young minds, listening to a major candidate for national office wondering what my students might be thinking. Then you went on to recount your career—a brief time in law school, working your way up in business, CEO of Hewlett-Packard, and now a candidate for high national office. I realize that you were probably just trying to make a connection with your audience, but it seems to me that your comment about your education was a bit, well, off the mark. You may not have liked law school—many don’t—but history is one of the best preparations for the study of law.  What is law if not the record of people in the past attempting to come to grips with the problems of their times through agreements on what can and cannot be done? We counsel our future law students to study history, just as you did, as preparation for a career as a lawyer. You then went on into business, and apparently had little trouble getting an MBA and an MA in management.  Somewhere through it all you learned to balance competing interests and personalities as a successful manager and CEO; you negotiated the difficult task of mediating conflicting goals, taking risks and making strategic decisions with incomplete knowledge, and no real knowledge of what the future might bring as a result of those decisions. When a student of business takes up a case study, they are using the approach of an historian. What better study could you have had than history? In your historical studies you learned, I would bet, that to understand an event, a movement, a set of ideas, or a person’s contribution you must take all of the factors you had to consider in business into account. As a student of history you had to understand how the personalities of leaders (or enemies) could affect a people’s or a nation’s future.  You learned that ideas have profound effects, and what some of those might be. You, no doubt, gained some wisdom, through study of great leaders about how to make an impact and bring about a good resolution in difficult times and through crises where the future is uncertain and perhaps bleak. You must have learned, having been a student of the middle ages, that some events, like the plague, are uncontrollable, and that one can only do one’s best, exercise as much common sense as possible, and survive.  Is there a better field of study for a future U.S. Senator? So, next time (my complaint is over, and now on to my advice) I hope you will say in a university auditorium that you are a proud student of history, that you encourage all students to study hard, to look for the wisdom of their chosen areas of study, and especially to take up the study of history as a compelling interest, as preparation for courageous action in the real world, whether in business or politics. Your own history has borne out the truth of this advice, and many students, young and old, might need a reminder. Thank you once again for visiting Fresno Pacific University, and the Sunbird Conservatives conference.  You honored us with your presence.  I hope someday we can discuss the historians and historical studies that have most intrigued us, that have offered us some wisdom, and prepared us for careers in teaching, leading, governing, and public service.  If you need a personal historian to support your upcoming work, I humbly offer my services. Stephen Varvis, Ph.D. Department of History Fresno Pacific University

A second installment of thoughts about the present state of the liberal arts in our educational setting.  The Chronicle of Higher Educationreleased a series of articles called “The New Liberal Arts” on March 5.  Now seems an appropriate time to discuss this issue further.  Let me summarize what I wrote a week ago. Here it is in a nutshell—our society and our educational system prizes specialization and professionalization. The public endorses this in the most practical way possible, by enrolling in every greater proportion. Yet when business and other leaders are asked what they desire in employees, they point to critical thinking, good communication, and the ability to work in teams, etc. the subjects that are usually associated with the Liberal Arts, with its broad range of disciplines, unspecialized curriculum, and its softer sciences The Chronicleseries points to the problem the liberal arts face, the practicality of students, and the needs of first generation students, then goes on to point to several public and private colleges and universities and their experiments in the liberal arts.  Southern Vermont tries to launch students into professional careers through embedding small-class learning environments into their curriculum; Bennington develops programs that focus on public problems.  The president of Bennington, Elizabeth Coleman, is quoted as saying that one of the problems of liberal arts institutions is that they have “professionalized the liberal arts to the point where they no longer provide the intellectual range and heightened capacity for civic engagement that is their signature.” In this she may well be right.  The article’s focus on critical thinking, and cross disciplinary work is not the same thing as what has traditionally been the focus of the liberal arts.  In that traditional focus history provided a window into public service and an understanding of political order; literature required the student to struggle with great works of imagination and insight; languages acquainted one with how others thought and created words to understand their world; philosophy confronted students with perennial questions and answers, often in conflict on with another and required that they sort through them, weigh and test them. The current focus on critical thinking seems often to substitute the hammer for the house. The series also mentions the experiments that even public schools are conducting the in creation of liberal arts institutions.  A significant number of students enroll, still, however, a small percentage of college and university student overall.  These seem to be living and often compelling experiments by highly dedicated and committed faculty members and administrators. When all is said and done, however, these experiments are limited and it seems that the focus has been lost. So what can one do? At the risk of being irrelevant, I will list several things that a creative university might do to develop its liberal arts character and at the same time remain relevant to the marketplace and its demands. Anyone who knows me will tell you that I have hardly a utopian bone in my body, and little patience for lost causes.  I intend the following as a practical list of practical steps which would, I think, strengthen our institutions and the learning we attempt to develop in our students. A university that wants to retain the best of the liberal arts in our professionalized-specialized world might…

• Limit the size of its professional majors, recognizing that students will develop their specialties as they move on in their careers. The goal of the bachelor’s degree should be getting the student into their first job and graduate school, not creating master’s level specialists.
• With the size of the major limited, a good university will offer breadth of learning in the traditional arts, humanities and sciences.  These might be in the form of minor programs requiring 15-20 units, or small concentration sequences that students can take in 2-4 courses, or even just electives that broaden the mind and experience.
• Provide a general education core that requires (yes “requires”) grappling with great ideas, great works of art, historical events and problems.  I realize that I beg the question by naming these “great.” I do this intentionally understanding that each faculty will need to debate this. At Fresno Pacific we did this nearly twenty years ago and developed a core program that weaves together world civilizations, biblical and religious studies, and current topics. My experience tells me that this kind of discussion requires ongoing nurturing and debate.
• An excellent university will teach not only what we know in or through particular fields of study, or what we think we know, but will also teach in extensive enough a fashion to also discuss what we don’t know, why we don’t know it, and why we think we do not know it. One of the problems of our overly specialized world is that we seem to think that we have or ought to have answers to everything. Recognizing the limits of our knowledge may be more an attitude and approach than something instituted. It requires a faculty dedicated to learning itself, which is always pushing the limits of its discipline, and recognizing the limits of its wisdom.

A university today must meet the needs of the public for trained knowledge workers (such an ugly phrase), and will and must provide the curriculum and programs that produce student ready to assume roles in our professional world, but it can and should encourage a kind of knowledge, broader and deeper than our specialized areas of study promote.  When it finds a way of doing so it will be extending the great strengths of the liberal arts tradition into the future.

It used to be that a university like Fresno Pacific might describe itself as a "liberal arts" college.  This seemed to be understood and respected.  And it still is in some places and among some people.  There are many good liberal arts schools around, and they produce very fine graduates, who are proportionally more influential than their peers from research universities.  But in the last 1oo years, the comprehensive research university has gained dominance in the educational world and in the minds of university aged students, their parents, policy-setters, high school counselors, and almost everyone else.  This is so to the extent that many people do not know what "liberal arts" signifies. A few years ago we were part of a marketing study in which our potential and current students were asked if they understood and thought positively about the description "Christian college or university."  Just under 25% responded affirmatively  Then they were asked the same question about the description "Christian liberal arts college or university."  Less than 15% responded positively.  At that point I stopped using the phrase "liberal arts" when describing what we were.  I figured that we lost 10% of the audience with the use of the phrase. This was a personal blow--I had basically pursued my own education all the way through the doctorate in the liberal arts.  I was apparently way out of touch--others, those closest to me knew this, but self-awareness is not easy. I learned that people thought of liberal arts was opposed to conservative, or that it meant that a student was not prepared to do anything in particular, that they would leave the college, degree in hand, to begin their career at a fast food window.  Or, if they were so inclined, they could teach elementary, and perhaps some subjects in secondary schools. Students want, as reported in study after study, in increasing intensity over the last two decades, majors that lead them to jobs, well-paying jobs, and entrance into specialized graduate programs. They want faculty who are expert in their specialized fields of study, who are also good teachers.  The model they, and we, see most often in higher education everywhere around us is the research university, with schools of engineering, business, the sciences, human services, education, and the arts (if they lead to specialized careers).  This is a very understandable desire and even necessary in our world. A recent article in the New York Times, "Making College 'Relevant,'" sent to me by one of our Biblical Studies professors, Dr. Brian Schultz (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/03/education/edlife/03careerism-t.html), has kindled some renewed interest on the part of our faculty, who take pride in their teaching in the liberal arts tradition.  A topic or two in the article will explain why. The article notes that today's students are much more practically oriented than a generation ago.  They are interested in careers and jobs, more than being well-rounded, critical thinkers, or with a deep appreciation for history, world affairs, or literature.  There are, of course, students who do not fit this trend, but they are now the minority.  And given our economy and the way we finance higher education, the practicality of most students seems like good common sense. Yet, the article cites a survey by the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AACU) of business people and what they seek in new employees.  The highest ranked qualities they seek are "the ability to effectively communicate orally and in writing," "critical thinking and analytical skills," and "the ability to innovate and be creative."  That is businesses want people with skills and abilities which are typically associated witht the liberal arts (history, literature, art, rhetoric), not with specialized technical majors.  This conclusion is not news.  We have known it for decades.  Those we at FPU have surveyed mirror this report, but also add that they want students who are ethical and have integrity, right at the top of their list of qualities. So students are faced with a puzzling choice. Most of what they read and hear tells them to go to a large university where they will get the specialized knowledge they need to get a job and begin a profession--be it in medicine, accounting or engineering.  At the same time, if we read the reports, businesses and professions are looking for qualities that are not always encouraged in technical fields and specialized academic majors. They may not know it but they are looking for the liberal arts educated student.  What are students to do? Here is the advice I have been giving students and their parents for the last dozen years at least.  I think it is practical--it works. Your major gets you your first job.  This is the reality.  If you want to become a psychologist, you must study psychology and dig into it as deeply as you can, for instance.  But the broader education you acquire, typcially through a good general education program, electives, and perhaps a minor, gets you your second, third and fourth.  This breadth, the ability to think across disciplinary boundaries, and in depth about our human predicament and the natural world, with the experienced gained from having studied intriguing subjects, great works of art, literature or history, and puzzled over problems and mysteries with insightful professors encourages further creativity, inspires people to great achievement, and to be recognized as leaders in their communities. A good university recognizes the reality of the world we live in, the practical necessities we face in our "knowledge society." And it adopts high ideals and goals, looking beyond the immediate and sometimes short-sighted demands of the market. But is must prove itself. It must show that graduates will and do get that first job, enter into professions, and begin to take their place in our speicalized world. Reports like the one in the Times validate again that there is more to it than that and that good colleges encourage in addition a different kind of learning, whch used to be called with understanding the liberal arts, more difficult to quantify and less easily categorized.  Students can do the same.

I am sitting in a meeting of the Board of Trustees of FPU as I write this brief blog.  I am here as a resource to the board, and they are not discussing anything that they would need my assistance on.  I listen so that I understand how the board understands and wants to pursue the future of the university, and take notes so that I can follow up on items that I will need to pursue later.  Some of it is complicated and detailed--technical legal requirements, etc.--and some of it is very high level goal- and direction-setting. Its Saturday morning--another work day for me.  But for the board members this is a busy day, one during which they are donating their time, energy, creativity, and talents to help guide and direct the university.  It is a big commitment, and some have served for many years.  They just now approved the proposed budget for next year, totalling somewhere near $40 million, and embodying a host of priorities from faculty development and scholarship, to tuition and financial aid commitments, capital improvements, new marketing initiatives and goals and plans for athletics, student life and spiritual formation.  It gets to be complex. Yesterday, Friday, the Board met for six hours, and we administrators played more active roles.  The academic and enrollment committees met together to review and discuss the results of the new marketing study prepared by for the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities (of which we are a member) that was released just last week in Atlanta.  About five of us who were in Atlanta were part of the meeting yesterday trying to sort out the implications of what students and parents want in a university today.  This will shape not only how we market the institution, but how we approach student and academic programs, faculty priorities, and building plans.  We will be presenting the findings to the faculty over the next months. After the meetings yesterday about 200 supporters of the university met for one of our annual fund raising dinners to thank our President's Circle donors (those who give $1000 per year or more). Most of the Board and administration were there. Some were honored for donating more than $100,000 to the university, others for being consistent supporters for more than 25 years.  We announced that we have raised $23 million so far in our current "Building on Excellence" capital campaign.  Goals for a school of education building and academic programs have been met, and we are still working on the final donations for a new performing arts center.  A performing arts center has been a dream and part of the plans for longer than I have been at the university (a very long time).  A new faculty and administration building, science and math center, residence hall, student center, and new athletic fields came first.  Now it is time for performing arts. What does it take to run a university?  The commitment of many--their time, gifts, insight, patience, and persistence.  It gets to be very complex.  And it takes a wise Board to keep it all in balance.

Today the announcement was made, in the words of the press release, that the Mennonite Brethren Biblical Seminary will transfer its programs to FPU, and that seminary faculty will become FPU faculty, etc. over the next few months.  Some of us have known this was probably going to happen for a couple of weeks, but not exactly when, how or on what terms.  Let me add my thoughts on what seems like an event to celebrate. Many people in Fresno have assumed that the seminary was a part of FPU and vice versa.  I can't count how many potential students I have talked to about the Marriage and Family Counselling program or the MDiv at the seminary, and have given them a name and phone number to call.  Many of us at the university have taught over the years at the seminary (in my case church history) and many at the seminary have taught for the university.  Our, FPU's, graduates regularly enter the theology degree programs and the MFT.  Some of our faculty are MBBS grads. We are on the same corner, share a library--it looks like we are one institution. My denomination, Presbyterian, has had a cooperative program with MBBS for training pastors, and a number of those in the San Joaquin Presbytery are grads.  Many pastors serving now in Fresno and the valley from many denominations (Baptist, nondenominational, charismatic, Anglican/Episcopal) are MBBS grads. I will be happy to count them as FPU alumni as well. Now we will become one institution under the FPU umbrella. We haven't, apparently, settled all of the organizational issues. There's time for all of this.  But I've already been working with Andy Johnson, the director of student recruitment at MBBS, and we are making sure that current and potential students know that they will have the same solid teaching that MBBS has been known for, will earn their degrees, will keep their financial aid, and will leave prepared to serve Christ in ministry and service. FPU students will now benefit from an easier transition to graduate studies. Our faculties will both be strengthened, and our programs deepened. For the churches and students of the valley, Fresno, and for the Mennonite Brethren churches in North America and worldwide this is something to celebrate.  Theological education will continue to thrive in Fresno. You can see the full press release at http://www.fresno.edu/news/news_story.asp?iNewsID=1574&strBack=%2FDefault%2Easp

Almost two years ago my paster and friend Chris Erdman asked if I would participate in an "urban retreat" on contemplative prayer. It turned out to be, for me, an amazing weekend, the special treat being the chance to listen to Fr. Robert Hale of the New Camaldi Hermitage in Big Sur.  Fr. Robert is a scholar, professor at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, and a very generous teacher. This year, our second, the retreat will focus on the English Mystics of the fourteenth century--Richard Rolle, Walter Hilton, the anonymous "Cloud" author, and Julian of Norwich.  As someone who has spent much of his professional life studying medieval and renaissance philosophy and theology, I could only think "I'm in!"  As you can imagine there is not a lot of call in today's economy for knowledge of such things, though every good university surely must have a medievalist around.  The course I have taught on Medieval thought and literature at Fresno Pacific  has been one of the most enjoyable, for me, and also for students (so they tell me).  What can be better than Chaucer, Boethius, the Gawain Poet, Anselm, Aquinas, Hildegard of Bingen, Langland (I could go on)?  Its hard to kill a course with such great material.  Say a few words, keep out of the way and let the authors do their work.  When we get this kind of opportunity, we can't turn it down. [caption id="attachment_228" align="aligncenter" width="216"] Icon of Julian of Norwich[/caption] One of the assignments we have at Fresno Pacific is to participate in such events as part of our scholarly work, and service the church--and how much better when the topic is so close to one's heart and when it is simply a treat to be a part of it. If you are interested in the retreat you can find details at http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs074/1102715361861/archive/1102944843862.html  You are invited. Join us in the pilgrimage to encounter what this unique group of guides has to teach us. Fr. Robert will do the yeoman's work (a good medieval image--I can't help it) with discussions of the mystics themselves.  Fr. Robert--a practitioner, theologian and spiritual director--opening up for us writers of wisdom and rare insight.  For something about New Camaldi see their website. http://www.contemplation.com/Hermitage/home.html. Chris will lead the retreat exercises, guide us through the weekend, and speak a couple of times.  He is working on a book on his own experiences and pilgrimage in prayer.  Check out his bolg http://chriserdman.com/ where you can also download a section of his book, "Returning to the Center". In a single session, I will be playing with how lay people used and adapted the great mystics' teaching in their spiritual lives. I hope to describe how the mystics helped develop the experience of lay people, concentrating on Langland's Piers Plowman and his similarity to Hilton and Julian, with a look at the fifteen century pilgrim (and aspiring mystic) Margery Kemp and her brief encounter with Julian.  These writers have a great appeal and meet a deep spiritual inner drawing in our own age. Join us if you can--Feb. 19-20 at University Presbyterian Church in Fresno.  Fr. Robert and Chris will guide us through the contemplative experience.  I'll provide some of the comic relief--Langland and Chaucer always have their feet firmly planted in their and our often outrageous world (alliteration or in this case technically assonance, a particular Middle English poetic form--I have to stop). [caption id="attachment_229" align="aligncenter" width="147"] Richard Rolle[/caption]

Ok this one is just for fun.  My wife, who teaches kindergarten in Clovis, celebrates with her students each week when all of them turn in their homework by doing the "dance of joy."  For kindergartners it is a big thing.  Because this was the eighth time they had all done this, I was the guest of honor to celebrate with them (I was in line after the principal and other dignitaries who came in earlier weeks).  You can see the joy in their faces. [caption id="attachment_222" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Dance of Joy[/caption] But I couldn't just leave it at that.  My wife tells me often about what here students are doing, what they are learning and their struggles.  Many of them may not come from homes where going to college is a goal or assumed.  So we turned the "dance of joy visit" into an early "plan for college day."  We know from higher education research that generally if a child does not think they are going to college by the time they are in fourth grade, chances are they will not go.  So as she explained to them that I was a college professor (not using such big words) we chanted together "we are going to college!"  And then did the dance. [caption id="attachment_223" align="aligncenter" width="300"] We are going to college![/caption] It's never too early.

Our semester has started once again.  I took a break from the blog, celebrated the birth of Christ, traveled a bit (maybe more on this later) and helped get the semester started.  Enrollment is good (definitely more on this later), and students and faculty are working away in classes, reading, writing, performing, interning, and all of the other things that make up scholarship and learning. Today was one of my favorite beginnings--our first Rotaract meeting of the semester.  Rotaract is the college age version of Rotary International.  Rotaract clubs must be sponsored by a Rotary club, and registered with Rotary International.  Our's is sponsored by North Fresno Rotary (the club in which I am a member).  I was asked to start the club a few years ago by our then club president, Doyle Daniel, also a father of FPU alumni and one of those creative supporters who have helped to bring international students to FPU, supported them while here and encouraged them on in their lives, faith and professions. This has been a unique year.  They club has been active and successful.  One of the goals is to raise funds and engage in active service.  "Service above self" is the Rotary motto, and Rotaract is intended to be hands on training for students who will become leaders in their communities.  This year we have raised $270 toward a $500 goal.  Doesn't seem like much?  Try to raise money on a college campus where many are working for minimum wage and partially supporting themselves, and where the faculty are hit up often for clubs, missions, special projects. But the club has been more creative than this.  They are working on the other half of the funds needed, and have been offered matching funds by North Fresno, and our former district governor when all is complete. This will give them $1500 to donate to toward a Rotary district 5230  project in Angola which is being directed on the ground by World Vision International--one agency that all of the players, Rotary International, the Gates Foundation, and the Angolan Government  trust (all partners in the project with our Rotary district). The donation will go to a micro-credit project in Angola, which helps families (often headed by women) to develop businesses and support themselves.  These have been remarkably successful in the developing world.  And it seems an good match for a club composed mostly of business majors.  Only $230 to go and we will celebrate.  (If anyone wants to donate, let me know. Anything is appreciated). Here we are today at the meeting--about half of the club were there, students from Fresno, Bakersfield, the Chico area, Korea, France--a great group of students to work with. [caption id="attachment_212" align="aligncenter" width="335"] FPU Rotaract First Meeting 2010[/caption]

At the end of my business ethics final, I asked students to reflect on what they had learned through the semester about how to be ethical.  We cover various ethical theories, how ethics can become part of the culture of a business, and why it should, along with a large number of case studies.  But there is also the personal side of it.  Students are confronted with themselves as moral persons. Here is what a few said in  answer to my question. They all gave me permission to post their responses. "The most important one was that it is harder than we think to be an ethical person...it takes time and practice...we need good role modes." "Its the small choices made early on which show who you are and how to change if needed." "In order to be an ethical person, I must practice ethical behaviors.  By making an effort to practice generosity, you are less tempted by greed..." "It won't happen [being ethical] if you do it just some of the time." "Being an ethical person is a challenge because it not only challenges your values, but it also questions who you claim to be." "An unethical decision can mess up so many lives!" "...as Christians we are called to be ethical." Not bad for a semester's worth of reading and discussion.  These statements get to the bedrock of understanding ourselves as ethical beings. They avoid the simplistic approach in which all we have to do is make good decisions when faced with particular choices.  And none of them avoided the issue by claiming that ethical imperatives do not apply in business, or that it doesn't matter because people will do whatever they want. They showed also that they knew that it is the small things, and the habitual behaviors that we practice everyday in business, the basic policies we follow (telling the truth to customers and partners, preparing honest expense accounts, standing by our promises even when it hurts financially, treating people fairly) that shape the ethical character of our organizations.  There are no grand theories here, but neither ethics nor business is about grand theories.  This kind of good practical sense, or practical wisdom, as Aristotle calls it, or perhaps plain wisdom, as the writer of Proverbs says, will, it seems to me, help guide them in their future professional lives.