Jonah is a rising college senior during the COVID-19 pandemic. Although remote learning procedures were implemented, the college eventually decided to allow only the senior class back to campus for their final year. This decision came with strict health and safety protocols. Jonah was concerned about the potential risk of returning but was reassured by his friends that they all intended to be safe. Unfortunately, “safe” had different connotations for his friends than for Jonah. Soon after returning to campus, Jonah witnessed his friends flaunting the college’s guidelines. Jonah began to pull away from his friends, whose behavior he saw as increasingly negligent. Concerned for his own health as well as the safety of others in the community, Jonah felt torn about whether to report his friends’ behavior to the school or maintain his loyalty by keeping quiet.
Confronting Coworkers
Cassie is a marketing professional in her late twenties who joined a new project at her firm in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the challenges of working remotely, she is proud of her contributions to the project and feels valued by her new team members. However, after downloading the transcript from a recent virtual meeting, she discovered that two of her coworkers had been badmouthing her appearance in what they believed was a “private” chat. Cassie is embarrassed and heartbroken that her colleagues would speak about her in such disparaging terms. She is torn about whether to confront her coworkers, bring the issue to her Human Resources Department, or simply pretend that nothing occurred.
Speaking Up, or Staying Silent?
Lisa is a first-year college student during the COVID-19 pandemic. Her college has decided to remain open for students. Though quite shy herself, Lisa is happy to be assigned a very sociable roommate also within her major. Lisa takes her studies--and the school’s strict honor code--seriously. Unfortunately, Lisa’s friendly roommate, Eva, does not share the same academic integrity. After noticing Eva looking up answers online during a remote exam, Lisa is distraught. Because of her timidness in making new connections, Lisa feels dependent upon Eva to introduce her to new friends and build her social community at the school. At the same time, the policy regarding remote learning explicitly prohibits online searches during exams. Should Lisa report Eva to her professors, or turn a blind eye to blatant disregard for academic honesty?
Serving a Cause vs. Serving a Client (*Sensitive)
Since childhood, Susan has known that she would become a defense lawyer. She wants to fight powerful people who abuse others, and she works actively to help government and democracy in general work effectively. Once, when Susan was representing two individuals on death row and lost the capital trial in state court, Susan and her fellow defense lawyers had to decide whether to file an appeal. A group of civil libertarians with whom she had been working urged her to wait five years because filing an appeal was likely to set back the statewide fight against the death penalty for a number of years. However, both of Susan’s clients were scheduled to be executed within that time, so Susan chose to appeal the decision, thus saving her clients’ lives.
Firm About “Flim Flam”
Gail has served as a criminal defense attorney for twenty-three years, and she was appointed a federal district court judge in the mid 1990s. She is a highly principled person, and she feels that her values shape her decisions in her professional life. Early on in her career, when she was having trouble finding cases, she was approached with a request to represent a woman charged with “flim flam,” which was basically an elaborate scheme to steal money. After Gail initially agreed to represent the woman and received full payment on the spot, she changed her mind and returned the money. Although many would argue that Gail had a responsibility as a lawyer to represent anyone who needed it, she said that the woman clearly had resources with which to locate and hire other legal representation, and she said that there was nothing the woman had done with which she cared to be involved. Despite having made a decision that felt in line with her values, she still questions whether she made the correct professional decision.
The Meaning of Grades
Stephen is a professor of engineering. He recognizes the importance of teaching in his work as a professor, and he tries to use techniques that require students to take chances and try new things that will help them to grow in both intellectual and personal ways. However, Stephen faces a major dilemma in his work with respect to grading. Like other professors at his college, Stephen has a strong commitment to the meaning of grades, and he refuses to inflate them. As a result, students from his department have traditionally had difficulty gaining acceptance into their desired post-graduate engineering programs: their grade-point averages are not as high as those of competing students from colleges where grade inflation is commonplace. Though Stephen recognizes that his students are at a distinct disadvantage as a result of his school’s relative lack of grade inflation, he wants to approach grading fairly.
In Pursuit of Excellence
Alfred Bloom was the President of Swarthmore College, a small liberal-arts college, from 1991-2009. In order to improve the long-term quality of the college’s athletic program, he and the college leadership decided to reduce the number of intercollegiate sports teams at Swarthmore from twenty-four to twenty-one. This move included ending the football program, which was an extremely controversial decision, and it received a great deal of notice in the press. Bloom explained that the decision was motivated “by a desire to… give students across sports a sense of quality of play, a sense of accomplishment, and a chance of actually being successful in competition… it was really about providing excellence. In athletics—because of the degree of specialization that’s taking place—if you want to have excellence, you have to have actually fewer teams.” In other words, because having good sports teams means admitting students based on that talent, President Bloom decided that Swarthmore should focus on a wider set of student interests and pursue excellence among a smaller set of teams.
Divided Loyalties
Sara is the executive director of a national nonprofit that represents the concerns of America’s independent workforce, including freelancers, consultants, part-timers, and the self-employed. Sara’s grandfather was vice president of the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union, and although she never met her grandfather, she has been very much influenced by his work as a union organizer. Soon after being recognized as one of a group of outstanding social entrepreneurs, Sara was invited to the World Economic Forum (WEF), a meeting of leaders of governments and corporations from around the world. Because the WEF gathers so many powerful individuals together, there are often protests of one form or another, and Sara was forced to cross a picket line in order to attend the WEF. In this case, she felt torn between a loyalty to her roots in the labor movement and a responsibility to her role as a successful social entrepreneur.
Does Excellence Always Equal Success?
Carol Marin is a highly respected investigative reporter for a CBS affiliate in Chicago and a contributor to “60 Minutes II,” the national weekly television news magazine. In 1997, during the time that Marin worked for NBC-owned Channel 5, the channel hired Jerry Springer to do a series of commentaries for Marin’s nightly news show. Marin objected to the management’s decision to hire Springer, the nationally syndicated host of a salacious talk show, because she felt that his approach violated essential journalistic standards. After some soul-searching, Marin resigned. In the aftermath of the Springer incident, the goodwill that Marin had gained among the Chicago public opened up an opportunity for her to serve as the anchor for a major local station’s 10 p.m. news show. Under her direction, the show produced a string of probing, in-depth stories, the equal of which have rarely been seen on local news. Unfortunately, Marin’s seriousness of purpose and admirable public-mindedness did not translate into market success, and the station canceled the show at the end of its eighth month.
Looking Good
Ray is a middle-aged history teacher at a new pilot school. Ray believes that kids need to enjoy themselves to learn. At the same time, he is a firm believer in holding students accountable: he expects them to be on time, to complete their work, and to not settle for a mediocre grade. As an individual teacher, holding students accountable is a real challenge. The school is a pilot school, and so it “might not be around in two or three years.” In order to help the school “succeed” and make it “look good,” many teachers at Ray’s school teach “down” to students and also inflate grades so that it appears that the students are thriving academically. Although Ray is part of a tight-knit community at the school, he often feels isolated when confronted with the issue of grading.
There’s No “I” in Team
Jesse is a young high school actor. During his school’s Spring Drama Festival, Jesse was fortunate enough to be cast in two different shows—a striking affirmation of his talent. His first show was a wonderful but draining experience, and he became involved in the second show right after finishing the first. Jesse was tired, both physically and emotionally, and, in addition, the second show was not of the same caliber, and he felt he didn’t understand where the director wanted to go with the material. As a result, he had a very negative attitude in rehearsals, and finally, a fellow member of the cast who was a close friend approached him about it. She told him that the rest of the cast was getting a very “negative vibe” from him.
When in Doubt… Make It Excellent
James is a senior in high school and chair of the school’s weekly newspaper. James takes his responsibilities as chair seriously. He wants to put out a high-quality newspaper each week, and at the same time, wants the staff to enjoy their work. When James began to work at the paper, the motto was “When in doubt, make it up.” James changed the news room culture, and now encourages staff members to feel personally accountable for their work every week. He also recently established an Association of School Journalists, the goal of which is to “encourage the study of journalism in local communities … and serve as a forum for the exchange of administrative and editorial ideas among partner schools.” He gives up a great deal for his work, including personal time, time for homework, and time for other activities. Nonetheless, he feels the experience he has gained makes it worth his time.