In law school, students take a professional responsibility exam and then take the MPRE exam. After graduation, they sit through (often boring) continuing legal education courses and try to get that precious ethics credit.

I don’t teach professional responsibility anymore, although I do speak about ethics in my Compliance, Corporate Governance, and Sustainability and my Business and Human Rights courses.

But as business professors, I’m not sure that we spend enough time talking about business ethics. Yes, it’s important to know about conflicts of interests but do we know how to advise our business clients on the issues that affect them?

I get to flex my “ethics” muscles in an interdisciplinary Innovation, Technology, and Design program housed in our School of Engineering, where I teach a course on Ethics, Equity, and Responsibility- basically Ethics and Technology.

They say grading is the worst part of being a professor.

But not this week.

My students in the ITD class brought me to tears reading their final exams.

I was impressed by their projects on regulating technologies like social media, cloning, AI, and robotics, and by their business plans and pitches for new innovations.

I would invest in some of them today if I could.

But their final reflections on the semester hit me hardest.

This class explored traditional philosophical principles (Kant, Descartes, Bentham, Hume, Locke, virtue theory, Socrates, Plato) and nontraditional theories (Ubuntu, care ethics, indigenous perspectives), applying them to topics like:
– Ethical supply chains
– Geoengineering
– Autonomous vehicles
– China’s social credit system
– AI and education, healthcare, and the environment
– Drone warfare
– Killer robots
– Social media

Some students did mock podcast interviews for their final exams. Others wrote long-form blog posts or letters to their future selves.

What struck me most:
– They debated these issues with family and friends, even when they weren’t asked to do so.
– They now approach debates and discourse with a critical eye for rhetoric, fallacies, and red herrings.
– Some deleted their social media apps or significantly cut down on their use and noted how their self esteem went up and their anxiety went down.
– They reflected on how they’ll use these lessons in their future careers.
– Some even changed career paths or dream employers.

Of course, they’re college students; their perspectives may evolve again.

But…

I believe that just one person can change the world.

These are our future business leaders, regulators, and government officials. They are our students’ future clients.

If I convinced even one student to consider ethics, privacy, and human rights be design in their careers or future government roles, then mission accomplished.

No one teaches – whether kindergarteners or law students – for the money.

We do it to shape the future, one person at a time.

We do it for moments like this.

I can’t wait to see how these sophomores and juniors change the world.

Whether you teach or not, I hope you’re in a role where you can inspire even one person to create a better future.

Who’s the one person you’re inspiring today?

Now, back to grading my law school exams… and hoping these don’t bring tears for other reasons!