By Melissa Nip
Business students at UP can expect to see sustainability issues and corporate citizenship become a much bigger part of the curriculum in the years ahead, now that the United Nations has admitted the Pamplin School of Business into its social responsibility program known as Principles for Responsible Management Education.
PRME, part of the U.N. Global Compact of 2007, was formed to encourage business programs to take a responsible role in globalization and to be more proactive about social issues, such as curtailing corporate corruption, human rights abuses, and environmental damage and destruction.
According to the PRME Web site, an international group of 60 deans and university presidents of business institutions developed the program.
Howard Feldman, associate dean and director of the Pamplin School of Business, applied to the program six weeks ago, and has many plans now that the school is formally adopting the six principles PRME advocates: purpose, values, method, research, partnership and dialogue.
"We will provide a set of programs and an educational experience that will embed ethical leadership, sustainability and social responsibility amongst our students," Feldman said.
Robin B. Anderson, dean of the School of Business, believes that the school already does an excellent job of teaching the standard areas of business, but believes it's become increasingly important for business students to also have a sense of corporate responsibility as well as knowledge of environmental, social, government and sustainability issues.
"The mission of the business school is focused on more than just the functional area of business," Anderson said.
The school is one of 100 in United States and 259 worldwide to have committed to the program and been accepted.
As a part of the commitment process, UP must integrate PRME's principles into the business school's curriculum and research, make an annual progress report and publicly advocate PRME values.
Feldman said that the School of Business plans to make several changes in the undergraduate and graduate programs.
In the undergraduate program, Feldman hopes to refocus the marketing and management majors by having concentrations in sustainability and social justice.
Within the graduate program, four new elective classes focused on sustainability will begin this summer.
"By making more interdisciplinary choices," Feldman said, "we hope to attract more students to the MBA program."
Other additions include a new Master of Science in Finance program with a focus on corporate social and ethical responsibility.
The school is also considering adding a proposal for a specialized MBA focusing on nonprofit management.
Although the PRME initiative may take years to implement fully into the school, Feldman and the other business administrators are eager to get started.
"We have plans to add more electives as the program grows over time," Feldman said.
Feldman said he has received strong support for the changes on campus and in the business community.
Many business faculty members are familiar with sustainability and corporate citizenship because they are involved in research, service and educational activities that are in this area of concentration, he said.
Joe Lang, assistant director of Media Relations, has been promoting and publicizing the School's acceptance into PRME and is pleased by the response.
"I was pleasantly surprised when our acceptance was recognized by the Portland Business Journal," Lang said. "It's an indication of where the School of Business is going."
