Daniels Fund supporting integrity and ethics in business |
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To Bill Daniels, Wyoming holds special significance. It is where he got his start. So for the charitable trust that bears his name, the University of Wyoming is logical recipient of a generous gift to promote the study of ethics in the world of business.
After establishing a cable television service in Casper in 1953, Daniels went on to achieve significant business success through a combination of perseverance and good fortune. In 1997, he established the Daniels Fund to inspire others to give of themselves and to provide grants to communities in Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah.
This spring, the Daniels Fund announced it was making a commitment of $2.625 million over the next ten years for the Bill Daniels Distinguished Professorship of Business Ethics to expand business ethics education in Wyoming and across the nation. The position began in 2005 with a commitment from the Daniels Fund for $900,000 over four years. The two grants combined—$3.52 million—represent one of the largest private foundation contributions for an academic program ever received at UW.
“The gift will provide stable funding for the Daniels professorship for the next decade and a continuation of a robust business ethics curriculum at UW and Wyoming’s community colleges,” says UW College of Business Dean Brent Hathaway.
In 2005, UW hired O.C. Ferrell, then head of the Department of Marketing at Colorado State University and a leading figure in ethics education, as the first Bill Daniels Distinguished Professor.
Ferrell and his UW colleagues in the College of Business have since established a business ethics curriculum and developed ethics modules for inclusion in conventional business classes. They are building a network of scholars interested in business ethics who will expose college students to the ideas and concepts of business and ethical issues. In late March of 2006, Ferrell gave a presentation for the Casper, Wyoming business community on “Managing Risks and Maintaining Corporate Integrity,” derived from his book of the same name.
“We have been honored to partner with the University of Wyoming in helping to ground students in the essential values they will need to succeed in business and lead happy, productive lives,” says Linda Childears, president and CEO of the Daniels Fund.
With the Daniels Fund grant, UW has integrated ethics concepts throughout the business curriculum and provided opportunities for students to interact with business executives to better understand the ethical expectations and issues faced in the “real world.”
The Daniels Fund also provides Daniels Opportunity Scholarships in Wyoming, coordinated by the Wyoming Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators. Financial aid offices at UW and the state’s community colleges worked collaboratively to put the proposal together to provide scholarships to non traditional students who enter one of Wyoming’s seven community colleges and plan to transfer to UW after achieving their associate degrees. Selection of the scholarship recipients is focused on GED recipients, children of the foster care system, and “second chance” adults pursuing education later in life.
The Daniels Fund operates the Daniels College Prep and Scholarship Program and the Daniels Fund Grants Program in Colorado, New Mexico, Wyoming, and Utah.
Posted on Thursday, June 01, 2006
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