¶ … Social Performance, Part 2 This a continuation assignment. Imagine company ethics program effective program. The Federal Sentencing Guidelines Organizations encourages firm set ethics programs.
Company: Pinnacle Professional College
Pinnacle Professional College is a for-profit institution that offers technologically-related continuing education courses, professional certification, and degrees primarily in technical fields such as dental hygiene, diagnostic sonography, and radiology. For-profit institutions have come under increasing scrutiny by the federal government for taking student's money, causing them to go into debt, and giving them with degrees of little value. To set the school apart from such unethical institutions, Pinnacle must show that that students move on to gainful employment that they would not otherwise have been able to obtain without attending Pinnacle. Pinnacle also has an ethical responsibility to ensure that students to not accrue more debt than they can conceivably pay off in a reasonable period of time. According to one NYU professor critiquing the current system of education: "while I was visiting a community college in the Southwest, a son of immigrants told me he had taken out a series of loans…only to discover, on graduation, that the institution was not properly accredited…For first-generation families like his, access to information is scarce. Priced out of increasingly costly public colleges, he and his peers are falling into the for-profit system, where they are easy prey for shady officials with ties to venal lenders who target high-risk borrowers" (Ross 2012).
It is incumbent upon Pinnacle to stand apart from such chicanery and establish itself as an ethical and trustworthy institution. Trade-specific learning can have value, particularly given the influx of college graduates who are currently unemployed with unmarketable degrees, while other areas of the job market remain underserved because of a lack of qualified personnel to fill them. Pinnacle University strives to fill that gap: it can provide affordable education for students which prepares future workers for a specific field.
Accusations of collusion between schools and student loan agencies to encourage students with little hope of graduating from taking out such loans have caused many for-profit institutions to issue ethical codes of conduct. For example, New York Career Institute (NYCI) pledges "NYCI does not create, maintain, or distribute any listing of 'preferred' or 'recommended' education loan lenders/servicers, nor will NYCI staff endorse any particular education loan lender/servicer" Code of Ethics for Student Loans, 2012, NYCI). NYCI employees may not accept gifts from student loan agents, nor receive advice from student loan representatives. "Financial Aid advisors neither favor nor discriminate against any particular student loan lender, servicer, or provider in giving counsel to student and parent borrowers" (Code of Ethics for Student Loans, 2012, NYCI).
Bellarmine University similarly states that university employees can receive a "personal benefit" from providing advice about student loans and it also vows not to have any preferred lender lists in its ethical code of conduct. (Student loan code of conduct, 2012, Bellarmine University). It notes "University employees shall not serve on lender advisory board for remuneration" and the "University shall not provide any advantage to a Lending Institution" (Student loan code of conduct, 2012, Bellarmine University). Auburn University likewise affirms that it complies with the 2008 Higher Education Opportunity Act and does not enter into revenue-sharing agreements or contracts with lenders. Like NYCI and Bellarmine, it states that it does not grant preferred lender status to any institution and prohibits employees from accepting gifts from lenders or from lenders to serve in an advisory capacity for students. "Auburn University will not request or accept from any lender any offer of funds to be used for private education loans (defined in section 140 of the Truth in Lending Act) including funds for an opportunity pool loan in exchange for Auburn University providing concessions or promises regarding providing the lender with a specified number of loans made, insured...
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