A gift from George Washington University Trustee Richard W. Blackburn, J.D. ’67, will endow an annual lecture and create a capstone event for first-year students in the School of Business. The Richard Blackburn Endowed Lecture on Civility and Integrity will invite a keynote speaker each year to speak on themes related to the importance of civility in business discourse and integrity in business conduct.
This annual endowed lecture will be incorporated as the capstone signature event for the undergraduate School of Business First Year Development Program (FYDP).
“The Richard W. Blackburn Endowed Lecture will become an essential part of the business student experience here at George Washington,” said Isabelle Bajeux-Besnainou, associate dean for undergraduate programs at the School of Business. “Mr. Blackburn’s generosity and foresight in creating this important lecture will have a lasting impact on School of Business students for years to come.”
The First Year Development Program is a two semester long course sequence required for all first year undergraduate students in the George Washington University School of Business.
The program’s curriculum – designed to enhance the education of School of Business undergraduates and begin their preparation for future careers – includes classwork on Academic Integrity and Ethics, Professional Communications, Ethical Issues in Business, and Leadership, all with a strong focus on individual strength assessments, self-reflections, career development and what it means to be a GWSB student.
Mr. Blackburn said he endowed the lecture because of his belief that success in business always depends on trust and that trust must be earned every day. “Civility and integrity are the essential foundations for creating and sustaining that trust,” he said.
Dr. Bajeux-Besnainou said that the FYDP curriculum will be adjusted to give more explicit focus on themes of “civility” in the leadership and ethics class sessions, culminating in the capstone event at the end of the first semester of the program that would underscore both the lessons of the first semester’s curriculum and the legacy of George Washington’s moral rectitude.
In addition to the formal lecture at the end of each fall semester, the capstone event will feature a special ceremony that will be part of the School of Business “Honorlloquium” in which the school’s students pledge to uphold the George Washington University School of Business Honor Code, committing to an academic and professional career founded on integrity and civility.
As well as the lecture and signing ceremony, the Blackburn Honorlloquium will include a concluding reception, followed by a private dinner with the speaker.
“At the School of Business, George Washington’s vision manifests itself in a curriculum that – at every level of instruction – is infused with a strong stance on ethical leadership, globalization, sustainability and social responsibility,” said School of Business Dean Doug Guthrie. “The Richard Blackburn Endowed Lecture on Civility and Integrity and the Honorlloquium will reinforce these global tenets which have evolved out of President Washington’s own principles.”
As a young schoolboy in Virginia, George Washington developed a set of 110 “Rules of Civility & Decent Behavior in Company and Conversation” that reflected and molded his sense of character and good behavior for the rest of his life.
Based on a 16th-century set of precepts, the “Rules of Civility” were one of the earliest and most powerful forces to shape the adult who would become the “father of his country” and the George Washington University’s namesake and moral compass.
In his last will and testament, President Washington anticipated an institution that would create citizen-leaders for a young and newly united country. An integral part of his concept of individual leadership was civility.
“The ideals of civility and integrity are an important part of the legacy of George Washington,” said Dr. Guthrie. “The annual Blackburn Lecture will help instill these same ideals in our students as they begin their path to becoming future business leaders.”
Open to the entire GW School of Business and greater GW community, the inaugural Richard W. Blackburn Endowed Lecture on Civility and Integrity will take place at the end of the fall 2013 semester, in late November.