Three Dartmouth alumni shared their experiences of striving to maintain personal standards of integrity in medicine, journalism and business to an audience of about 40 students during a Tuesday night panel sponsored by the Undergraduate Judicial Affairs Office. The panelists discussed the value of the principles of ethics outside the classroom.
“Too often students lose sight of why integrity and ethics are important,” said Alan Rozycki ‘61, a professor of pediatrics at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center . Rozycki said the principle behind the academic honor code transcends disciplines.
“Many recommendations made by doctors are not solely medical but are colored by cultural and personal biases,” Rozycki said. He recounted a situation in his career where he felt emotionally compelled to inform an adolescent female patient that her boyfriend, another patient of his, was HIV positive. To do so, however, would have been a flagrant breach of the law.
Rozycki’s interest in interdisciplinary ethics led him to start a New Hampshire chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility, first formed in 1961 at Harvard medical school. PSR’s mission is to achieve nuclear disarmament, according to its website. Additionally, in 1985 Rozycki helped form the War and Peace program, which offered some of the first interdisciplinary courses at Dartmouth .
“That was one of the most profound experiences, not because I was doing it, but because students like you were teaching me so much,” Rozycki told his student audience.
Bob Hager ‘60, a longtime NBC News correspondent, said that ethics was especially important in journalism because “in order to be credible, we have to be squeaky clean.” According to Hager, ethics are sometimes complicated in journalism because of the fast-paced nature of the profession.
“A lot of the calls we have to make as to what’s ethical we have to make under the gun,” Hager said.
Hager described that, as a reporter, many of his stories create conflicts of interest within his personal relationships, such as with his daughter and his boss. One particular incident resulted in his boss not speaking to him for six months.
“We do have a watchdog person for ethics and standards, and you are supposed to run controversial stories by your lawyers,” Hagar said. “The rules are important, but it really comes down to the individual — there’s no cookie cutter, it’s what’s in your gut. It’s important to realize you can’t rely on the rules.”
The final speaker, Karen M. Fleming ‘83, said that she discovered it was possible to make the world a better place through business.
“There are people who believe that business is fundamentally evil — I don’t agree with that,” Fleming said. She began her own company after working with Seventh Generation, a company dedicated to manufacturing non-toxic household products.
“I was always a bridesmaid, never a bride, so I decided to take a big leap and start my own company. It was focused on making a difference in the world,” Fleming said.
She said she believes that a greater level of transparency in business negotiations is the driving force for greater social responsibility in business.
“Guess what?” Fleming asked. “Socially responsible businesses now outperform non-socially responsible businesses.”
She also advised students to research the culture of a potential company, saying “like attracts like; if you choose to surround yourself with ethical and trustworthy people, it gives you an opportunity to be the best person you can be.”
The panel, held in the Rockefeller Center , was coordinated by Ali Levine ‘07.
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