No one at the Kellogg Graduate School of Management seems to remember Andrew Fastow, the former Chief Financial Officer of Enron who graduated as a part-time student in 1986 and profited millions from now-controversial “partnerships.” At least, that’s what Kellogg Media Relations Director Heidi Diedrich says.

Or, as Rich Honack, asst. dean and director of external relations for Kellogg, puts it, “We have 40,000 graduates out there – he’s one.

“I don’t know why a business school would be responsible for what they did (at Enron),” Honack continues. “I don’t understand that. Was Oxford responsible for President Clinton’s behavior? Was that unethical?”

But even before Enron became synonymous with unethical business practices, Kellogg students, faculty and administrators were already considering reforming the school’s core curriculum to include an ethics requirement. Some students have also expressed concern because not one of Kellogg’s seven distribution requirements is currently devoted solely to business ethics. According to Honack, this is because ethics are woven into the current curriculum.

“Ethics are just a part of doing business at Kellogg,” Honack says. “Ethics should be in every course, not just one course.”

But second-year Kellogg student Jon Neuhaus disagrees with this assessment. He says he thinks Kellogg can improve by more actively challenging its students to consider the ethical questions involved with all management issues.

Neuhaus, who attended Phillips Exeter Academy, drew upon his alma mater’s motto, “Goodness without knowledge is a waste, while knowledge without goodness is dangerous,” in explaining his support for an ethics requirement. While Neuhaus points out that a required ethics course would not ensure ethical graduates, he also says that “lacking the challenge a core course would provide to think critically of ethical considerations means that something is missing.”

Last fall, Neuhaus worked in conjunction with several professors to formulate a survey asking undergraduates, alumni and faculty whether a course should be added. The survey, which went out before the scandal, found a rift between those who passionately supported an ethics course and those who were less enthusiastic.

“If you ranked it 1-to-10 with 10 (in favor of a course), there were many 10s, but there were a lot of fives and a few ones,” Neuhaus says. “Probably the fives predominated. In other words, yes, it’s important, but finding the best medium is the question that people are struggling with now.”

Among those who oppose the requirement is David Messick, who teaches Making Ethical Decisions, an elective course in Kellogg. Messick’s course asks students to think through all of the possible ramifications of their good-intentioned business decisions. “What I can do is sort of walk people through the ethical complexities of decision-making in a business setting,” Messick says.

However, Messick is one of the first to point out that it can do little to fundamentally change people. “I don’t think Andy Fastow would have been any different if he had had a 10-week ethics course,” he says. “Keep in mind that when students are admitted to Kellogg, on average they’re between 28 and 30 years old. What kind of an impact do you think a 10-week course can have on somebody that age?”

Neuhaus, however, says that his age and experience should not imply that he can no longer learn or be challenged.

Neuhaus’ own plan for a required ethics course would overlap with Making Ethical Decisions but would also ask small groups of students to work together to understand and present a solution to hypothetical dilemmas.

But the premise for this course would closely reflect that of Making Ethical Decisions. “The intention that I had, at least, for an ethics course is not necessarily to ‘sway people’s opinions’ but instead to challenge people to think and talk about challenging situations,” Neuhaus says.

Nevertheless, the low level of enthusiastic support for such a required course, as demonstrated by the surveys, has greatly diminished the possibility that it may be added, Honack says. “Right now, the students are saying it’s not necessary,” he says.

“That doesn’t mean that the conversation won’t extend beyond my tenure here,” says Neuhaus, who claims that simply starting a discussion may eventually cause change.

In addition, Neuhaus suspects that the survey might have yielded different results had it been given after the public became more aware of Enron’s business practices.

Ultimately, Messick says, the responsibility for student ethics lies more with Kellogg’s admissions department than with the school.

“What we can’t teach, we select for,” Messick says. “We get an immense variety of very impressive young people. No program is perfect, so occasionally somebody is going to slip through who is going to be good at mimicking somebody who’s honorable, responsible and who cares about being a good citizen as well as making money.” nyou