By Mark Meaney
CESR Executive Director
Events leading up to Tim Wolfe鈥檚 resignation as the University of Missouri System president highlight the benefits of CESR pedagogy. With the best of intentions, Mr. Wolfe met with students during a student demonstration. A student asked him how he would define 鈥榮ystematic oppression鈥�. Unfortunately for Mr. Wolfe, he clearly hadn鈥檛 thought through a response to this kind of question in advance. He had to rely on instinct and, consequently, he found himself impaled by one side of the horns of an ethical dilemma.
In response to the question, Mr. Wolfe told the student, 鈥淪ystematic oppression is because you don鈥檛 believe that you have the equal opportunity for success.鈥� Naturally, the student accused Mr. Wolfe of blaming the victims for their own 鈥榮ystematic oppression鈥�.
I don鈥檛 believe this was his intention, however, Mr. Wolfe did make a conceptual mistake in his reply by referencing only one component in a complete definition of justice. He implied that the student鈥檚 failure to acknowledge 鈥榚qual opportunity鈥� is a failure to see that justice entails 鈥榚quals are treated equally鈥�. In short, he accused the student of a misunderstanding, since, according to Mr. Wolfe, the student only thinks she is oppressed because she doesn鈥檛 understand that justice defines her as an equal.
Far from a misunderstanding, the student understood perfectly well the other side of the horns of the dilemma, which Mr. Wolfe had failed to address. Perhaps in a perfect world 鈥榚quals are treated equally.鈥� However, this is not so in the case that there is a morally relevant difference between individuals or among classes of individuals. 鈥楽ystematic oppression鈥�, or here 鈥榬acial discrimination鈥�, is a clear example of such a morally relevant difference. A more complete definition of justice entails that, when there is a morally relevant difference like systemic, racial discrimination, then justice entails the obligation to right the imbalance of power, or to treat unequals unequally. As a leader, Mr. Wolfe should have been prepared with a proper response to this kind of ethical dilemma; instead, he relied on his own instinct to his rapid demise.
CESR pedagogy is based on the case-based method and/or experiential learning. We constantly reinforce with our students the fact that they cannot rely on instinct in resolving ethical dilemmas. They must reason their way through morally relevant facts toward a resolution that takes into account the competing interests of stakeholders. This requires that, as future business leaders, they must ready themselves through practice, because, in the 鈥榬eal world鈥�, if they miss morally relevant facts or ignore the interests of a stakeholder, they too will find themselves impaled on the horns.