Bravo NASPAA!                                                                                                                        Ethics Moment           June 2006

 

            The National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration has taken one more important step toward promoting ethical practices and behavior. A new NASPAA Member Code of Practice has been published that admonishes all programs holding membership in NASPAA--not just those accredited—to integrate “ethics into the curriculum and all aspects of program operation, and expects students and faculty to exhibit the highest ethical standards in their teaching, research, and service.”

 

            NASPAA’s Standards make passing reference to enhancing the student's “values, knowledge, and skills to act ethically….” but unlike other core curriculum components like management or political institutions or IT, there are no explicit requirements for coverage of ethics. As Dennis F. Thompson said in a 1992 PAR article, “from the truth that ethics is mainly instrumental, it does not follow, as many critics seem to think, that ethics is always less important than other issues.” Isn’t time for NASPAA to take the next significant step and require all accredited programs to either (a) offer an ethics course and/or (b) place an ethics course in the core curriculum?