As my college days come to an end, I have been reflecting upon the experiences that helped me create myself while I attended SMU. There was Dean Bowen’s continuous wisdom about “assumptions” (everyone has assumptions!) in my Jazz History class. There were the three religious studies courses I took that drastically changed who I am today in an extremely positive way. (Coming from a nonbeliever, that’s saying a lot.) There was my personal discovery of Friedrich Nietzsche’s highly misunderstood philosophy. Lastly, there was my decision to major in accounting. Perhaps this last experience is the most important one.
As young students, we attend college with some sort of aim: to obtain a higher education or to master one’s passions. Most importantly, we attend college with an aim to change the world for the better. This is a virtuous and noble endeavor, but does our college education enable us to do so? Does my business school education teach me how to change the world for the better? It has taught me that the lead purpose of a public corporation is to maximize shareholder value. This has been the emphasis of my business school education. Where is religion in this purpose? The development of values and ultimate purpose? The questioning of our current “infallible” capitalistic system? We wonder why corruption, fraud and the underlying disregard for society in favor of the shareholder plague our corporate world. It’s simple: Our business education isn’t taught in combination with values that help us think and act on a higher level than just pure economics.
I was required to take Business Ethics for my undergraduate education and another ethics course to be able to sit for the Certified Public Accountant exam. However, these classes didn’t substantially help me to develop a foundation for ethical decision-making. We discussed the wrongdoings of certain companies, corporate responsibility, bizarre, unrealistic ethical dilemmas and various methods of acting ethically. But we never discussed, defined or debated answers to the hard questions. Never once did we ask, “How can we use business to make the world a better place?”
Maybe business students should be required to take a few existential philosophy courses, from which such questions naturally arise. These courses would allow for the creation of the development of a personal intellectual and spiritual foundation. They would provide us with tools to help us create and enable change at a societal level by first creating the individual. Our thoughts and values would permeate throughout our world. We would be more in tune with our spiritual selves; that is, the level in which we define our existence and who we are.
Are we being educated about the right things? About things that will truly help us change the world? These questions help me enhance my education by supplementing it with my urge for outside intellectual discussions and readings. But one must ask the question: Shouldn’t we all be asking these things? Shouldn’t we be taught about the very things that make us human beings and not just self-interested businessmen and women? A few GEC courses obviously aren’t enough to accomplish this goal. Look at society. Look at the too-big-to-fail firms. Our current curriculum isn’t enough. It is fueling what is wrong with our capitalistic system. If managers had a sense of their existential selves, values, virtues and ultimate purpose, would they not behave with more corporate responsibility, compassion and greater purpose? Undoubtedly, yes.
The purpose of an educational institution should be to produce intelligent, innovative, virtuous students with purpose and a goal to be not just a good human being but an excellent human being. A human being that feels a responsibility to take care of the one thing that makes our existence enjoyable—the community.
Daniel Palos is a graduate accounting student. He can be reached for comment at [email protected].
