Observer the
The Independent Newspaper Serving Notre Dame and Saint Mary’s Volume 44 : Issue 41
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2009
ndsmcobserver.com
Mendoza adapts in response to financial crisis Business College expands focus on ethics in curricula, continues leadership programs By BOB SINGER Assistant News Editor
Amid widespread scrutiny of corporate management and with the financial collapse in recent memory, the business college is expanding its approach to teaching ethics, Dean of the Mendoza College of Business Carolyn Woo said. This fall, in addition to offering more courses on ethics and continuing its Executive Integral Leadership program, the College is hosting the annual Berges Lecture Series, which features senior executives speaking about their experiences in the ethical dimensions of business. “Some colleges have courses in business ethics in their curricula.
Professor founds center to examine regulation
What’s important to us at Notre Dame is that this be viewed as a way of life, as a cornerstone of what a business education should be,” Leo Burke, Mendoza’s Director of Integral Leadership, said. “In the spirit of the place, through many of our courses and our professors, we want to emphasize this need for ethics.” The College’s MBA program includes two courses in ethics, one required and one selected from a list of topics like marketing ethics, financial ethics in banking and global sustainability, Professor of Marketing Patrick Murphy said. On the undergraduate level, the College requires students to take a course on
Observer File Photo
see ETHICS/page 6
The Mendoza College of Business has broadened its ethics curricula as a consequence of the financial crisis.
By IRENA ZAJICKOVA News Writer
When the stock market began sliding in September 2008, Notre Dame Finance professor Paul Schultz said financial regulators took several futile measures that resulted in undesired side effects. To prevent this from happening again, he decided to create the Center for the Study of Financial Regulation to examine the effects of regulations and provide input for future decisions. “There’s a lot going on in financial regulation right
see CENTER/page 4
Study abroad rate ranks seventh in U.S. Lake path By SARAH MERVOSH News Writer
Sophomore Erin Wurst said her study abroad application is weighing on her mind more and more, not just because of the approaching deadline, but because everyone is talking about it. “All of my friends are applying,” she said. “Everyone is kind of talking about where are you in your applications and what’s your essay about because you have to stand out to everyone else who’s applying.” Wurst, who is applying to study in Toledo, Spain, for a year, said study abroad has become a favored topic of con-
versation because she knows so many students who are applying. “I feel like it’s just kind of something that everyone does. It’s not really an issue of it you are going abroad, it’s like where you are going abroad,” she said. With 59.5 percent of Notre Dame students earning credit abroad, Notre Dame has the seventh-highest study abroad rate in the country, the 2008 Open Doors report said. “Our percentage is very high,” Director of International Studies Kathleen Opel said. “I would say higher than Ivy Leagues.” Opel said Notre Dame has had a long-term commitment to
QUENTIN STENGER / The Observer
see SENATE/page 6
S e n a t e l e a d e r s h i p f i e l d s s u g g e s t i o n s f o r way s t o enhance intellectual discussion among students.
see LAKE/page 8
Ideas proposed to improve intellectual climate Senators discussed a perceived lack of intellectual di s c u s s i o n a m o n g s t u d e n t s outside the classroom at Notre Dame, as compared to peer institutions, and discussed suggestions for improvement at the Student Senate meeting Wednesday. “We can talk about sports, our internships, our study abroad programs and the jobs we want to pursue later in life at lunch at dinner time, but we don’t talk about
INSIDE TODAY’S PAPER
News Writer
Plato or great American works,” Duncan Hall senator C.J. Kelly said. Knott Hall senator Andrew Bell said he had a professor who came from Princeton, who said at Princeton, Notre Dame students were considered inferior in their ability to have intellectual discussion. “But we were really good at taking notes and taking tests,” Bell said. “It sort of offended me at first, but it got us thinking. What do people say about us and how can
see ABROAD/page 8
STUDENT SENATE
News Writer
By KRISTEN DURBIN The east area of the Saint M a r y ’s L a k e f o o t p a t h w a s closed Monday to allow for functional and aesthetic improvements on the path and the surrounding lakeshore. This area, located just north of the Grotto at the northwest intersection of Saint Mary’s Road and St. Joseph Drive, has been a popular gathering spot, so heavy use coupled with erosion caused the asphalt in the area to deteriorate, according to Daniel Yo u n g g r e e n , d i s t r i b u t i o n supervisor for Notre Dame Utilities. “The main reason for replacing the path is that the walkway on the edge of the lake deteriorated due to wave action on the lake, which caused erosion in that area,” Younggreen said. Another factor contributing to the deterioration of the path is that the area was previously coated with three-inch diameter field stones, and people most likely threw many of these stones into the lake. The gradual loss of field stone in the area led to further erosion of the shoreline. Younggreen also noted safe-
BLAIR CHEMIDLIN | Observer Graphic
By SARAH MERVOSH
closed for repairs
CCAC meeting page 3
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Paranormal Activity review page 12
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Men’s soccer falls to MSU page 24
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Viewpoint page 10