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UD students to be urged to view business as a calling

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By John Nolan, Staff Writer 11:14 AM Thursday, October 22, 2009

DAYTON — At a time when the government is trying to reduce generous Wall Street compensation for executives at companies that received federal aid, the University of Dayton is launching a program designed to help business students find deeper meaning in their chosen professions.

“More than just making money, it’s a calling,” Matthew Shank, dean of the university’s School of Business Administration, said Thursday, Oct. 22.

The new Center for the Integration of Faith and Work is to build on the Roman Catholic university’s Marianist heritage. It will be part of the School of Business Administration.

Brother Victor Forlani, Marianist in residence for the business school, is the founding director of the center.

“By viewing a business career as a calling — as distinct from a series of jobs — a deeper sense of purpose and social awareness is fostered and, at the same time, creates a culture of business integrity,” Forlani said in a prepared statement. “Although ethics is very much a part of what we will explore, the work of the center will go beyond ethics and look at how values, personal commitment and character are inseparable from leadership ability.”

An existing master’s in business administration course, titled “Business as a Calling,” will be folded into the center. UD business school faculty have been asked to consider how they can contribute to the center’s offerings for students, Shank said.

The center will sponsor the annual Business as a Calling symposium, now in its sixth year, which led to the center’s creation.

The university is hosting the Business as a Calling event Thursday and Friday. Jay Gould, a 1981 UD economics graduate who is now a group president for Newell Rubbermaid Inc., will be part of the event. He delivers a free public lecture at 5 p.m. Thursday in the school’s Kennedy Union ballroom.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2242 or jnolan@DaytonDailyNews.com.

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