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6
Faculty Matters Summer 2012
your
opinions
“ We’ve launched a
whole new online
experience at
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Be sure to visit!”
— Tracy Nita Pender
Senior Editor,
Faculty Matters
comments, critiques and kudos
I
’m part of the psychology online faculty, teaching
undergrad through Ph.D., and have been with
University of Phoenix since 2006. I’m a psychologist
in my own private practice but have also been an
award-winning faculty member previously at another
university. I prefaced my statement with that
information because I wanted you to know that I mean
it when I say thank you for the University’s Faculty
Matters magazine.
Particularly, I’m happy to see my colleagues get the
well-deserved feature profiles showing their hard
work in and out of the classroom. I have been a public
person for many years as an author and television oncamera
expert, so I get plenty of exposure. But I have
seen so many talented colleagues work and toil with no
recognition at so many schools. Many universities give
lip service to words such as “value of faculty, respect
for faculty, etc., etc.,” but no actual follow-through.
University of Phoenix’s magazine, the honoraria
spotlight and featuring publications and books by
faculty is refreshing and inspiring to see.
— Dr. William July, University of Phoenix faculty
Houston, TX
The letters below were received in response to our Spring 2012
edition feature “Can faculty influence right and wrong?”
I
believe our behavior, ethical or not, is a function of
our own belief and value system. These could be
based on religious beliefs, education in philosophy,
a sense of fair play, or at the simplest level a sense
of what is right or wrong. These factors combine to
produce our observable behaviors which are usually
habitual. Since the behaviors are habitual we will
usually display then if watched or not watched.
— Thomas A. Graham, University of Phoenix faculty
Moore, OK
Iwas disappointed that the discussion of ethics
in the Spring 2012 issue of Faculty Matters was
so shallow and uninformed and that the article
reporting the recent poll [Your Voice, pages 34-37]
on ethics careened from one fallacy to another.
To start, take the word “ethics”—nobody seems to
have noted that the word does not refer to a pre-set,
prescribed system of guidelines for behavior—“right
and wrong”—but rather to any system of concepts,
sometimes explicit rules, about what is “right and
wrong.” As such, different cultures and different people
may have (and do have) different ideas about right
and wrong—and very often conflicting ideas of what
is right or wrong, which is not to say that one person is
ethical and another not—simply that their ethics differ.
A gross example (by which I mean exceedingly
unsubtle): honor killings. In the West, to kill a female
relative because she transgressed an ethical code
(perhaps went out on a date with a young man, was
caught holding hands with a boyfriend) is considered
vastly unethical; we in the West can hardly conceive
anything more unethical. Yet, in some parts of the
world, such is the ethical duty of males in a family.
I was just reading this morning about a 16-year-old
Moroccan girl, having been forced by the local court to
marry the man who had raped her, committed suicide.
Again, we in the West consider this a tremendous
travesty and the depth of barbarism. Evidently, in
some codes of Moroccan justice, forcing a woman to
marry her rapist is considered the height of ethics.
And, as much as I agree with and am imbued in the
Western system, I have to acknowledge that the
other system does constitute a system of ethics.
So, to ask the questions, “Do you feel that ethics are on
the decline in the U.S.?” or “Do you feel that students
today are more or less ethical,” really is to ask the
wrong questions—or to ask questions with mistaken
presuppositions: the presupposition that there is a set
standard of ethics to which everyone agrees and by
which all behavior may be judged, and by this standard,
ethics can be said to “rise” or “decline.” This is simply
not true, and to ask the question does little more
than to prompt a rousing chorus of the song from
the musical Bye, Bye, Birdie: “Kids! What’s the matter
with kids today?” (Which, I have read, is very similar
to a complaint found on an ancient Egyptian tomb.)
— Dr. Michael McIntyre, University of Phoenix faculty
Crestline, CA
Corrections
In the article “Keeping it real,” in our spring edition, Maryse Nazon was
incorrectly listed as holding her Ph.D. Dr. Nazon holds her Psy.D.
In the same edition, Dr. Barb Turner, DAA of the Asia Military Campus in
Okinawa, Japan, was incorrectly listed as Barbara Taylor. Dr. Turner wrote
the letter alerting us to the need to change our tagline for Faculty Faces.
Faculty Matters apologizes for the errors.