from the following 3 sources
1. Do you think that the student, Jean, acted in an unprofessional manner, an unethical manner, both, or neither?
2. Support your answer from the following 3 sources: 3. The ASME Society Policy on Ethics 4. The PSE Code of Ethics and Rules of Thumb 5. The Recommended Core Ethical Values that are attached to this memo. 6. How does Jean’s action affect the Padnos School of Engineering and possibly
other students? 7. Do students have responsibilities toward other students and toward the Padnos
School of Engineering? 8. Obviously Company A will view this as a bad experience. What could/should
the Padnos School of Engineering do about this, and in particular how should they approach Company A since they did originally have an interest in the co- op program. Should Company B be informed? (They were not informed in this case…pros and/or cons?)
9. Would anything change if Jean did not tell the truth about Company B and simply made up a story to explain why she would not be coming to work at Company A?
10. When Company A offered the position to Jean and Jean accepted, were binding obligations in place for Jean, for Company A, or both parties…and what is the nature of those obligations? What happens to the work environment when you can no longer trust a person’s word?
S. T. Fleischmann
378 Science and Engineering Ethics, Volume 10, Issue 2, 2004
Integrity, Competence, Courage and Compassion These are the virtues by which we hope students, graduates, and faculty of the Padnos School of Engineering are known. Figure 3 shows the document that explains engineering professionalism as related to these four virtues. We have also combined these words into the graphics of a seal for the school shown in figure 4. The center of the seal is a compass – indicating the importance of these virtues in setting the direction of a professional life.
By posting this along with the Honor Concept and the Honor Code in many places, we hope to surround our students with reminders of these foundational ideas. By living these ideas in our own lives, we, as faculty, hope to draw our students into a culture based on a strong sense of personal honor. FIGURE 3: Engineering Professionalism, Four Virtues and Excellence – as posted
and distributed to students.
ENGINEERING PROFESSIONALISM Seymour and Esther Padnos School of Engineering
• Integrity: Trustworthiness – While knowledge and skill are important to engineering
practice, an engineer’s integrity is even more important. An engineer who cannot be trusted also cannot be tolerated as a member of the engineering profession.
