Students can learn ethics through investing

In the June 29 Chronicle of Higher Education there's a story about an effective way to get students engaged in opportunities for authentic learning in an area most of us value as an element of general or liberal education.

My institution, Stetson University, is among many that are confronting ethical issues in financial markets and challenging students to do the same.

Stetson's School of Business Administration is home to the Roland George investments program...founded in 1980 with an initial gift of approximately $586,000....along with the stipulations that there be minimal restrictions on what the students could invest in and that they use real money. Since its inception, the George program has returned more than 7 percent annually after program expenses have been deducted. Now worth $2.2-million, the gift was intended by its founders to begin a student-focused and student-run portfolio.

That goal, however, is not without its challenges. Recently the students managing the portfolio had to confront what I would call "contentious" investing, involving strong differences of opinion as to what constitutes morally and ethically appropriate investments.

Everyone in the room was forced to confront his or her own position on the ethics of the decision, and nobody left without being exposed to the ethical dimensions of a seemingly cut-and-dried investing decision. That is precisely the way it should be. One can disregard controversial issues with an ethical dimension, or one can stare them straight in the face, make a reasoned analysis, and then live with the consequences. In this case, our students didn't blink but made a decision that took all of the facts into consideration.

I am hopeful about how they will face similar issues as professionals. They realized that decisions go beyond the merely technical; that there are larger issues that must be confronted. That is where the real education took place.

And now, for the rest of the story...