All organizations set high ethical standards.  They try to live up to them.  They never do.  They might fire an employee who breaches these standards, but they usually don’t.  They will if the ethics violation becomes public.  If it does and it involves a big dog, the dog is “put down.”  Consistency, one of the hallmarks of employment law and human resources, is scuttled.  Witness the recent demise of the president of West Virginia University.

A scandal began brewing at WVU when the daughter of the Governor of West Virginia ( a former classmate of the WVU president) was retroactively given an MBA after the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported that WVU had no record of the degree claimed on the daughter’s resume.  The daughter complained to the president, who assigned a review of the matter to college administrators.  They eventually granted the degree, after giving the Governor’s daughter credit for classes she didn’t take. 

All hell broke loose.   Independent investigators said WVU officials showed “seriously flawed judgment.”  Although the WVU president didn’t participate in the flawed decision, his top staffers put “palpable” pressure on the administrators tasked with handling the problem.  The degree was rescinded.

All hell broke loose again.  There was the dreaded vote of no confidence by the faculty.  Professors petitioned the president to resign.  Major donors threatened to revoke gifts.  The WVU Board of Governors supported the president, but that didn’t count, because several board members were appointed by the Governor.  What was most important, said those united in solidarity against the WVU president, was minimizing damage to WVU students, many of whom were the first in their families to attend college–children of coal miners, mechanics and truck drivers who had no idea that their world was different from the world of, say, the Governor’s daughter.  When academia plays the class card, things have turned ugly indeed.  The WVU president dutifully resigned.

A victory for ethics?  In your dreams.  There’s no more ethically challenged organization than a university.  The politics are brutal.  Contention between administrators and faculty makes education secondary.  Add faculty disdain for the board, and hell will often break loose. 

What’s palpable is the hypocrisy.  It’s true that politicians who provide university funding are granted favors.  But how many administrators and professors pull strings to get their own kids admitted–without having to pay the full tuition freight?  How many of their children receive benefits because of who they are?  Ditto for major donors who have buildings named for them.

Ethics are important.  Human resources often has a role in enforcing an organization’s ethics.  That means you’re caught between a rock and hard place.  You should enforce your ethical code, but don’t play games with one person’s life while the lives of other violators are untouched.

Every university needs occasional atonement.  The collective sins become too malignant.  Now that the WVU president has been sacrificed, reconciliation can abound.  Students, surrounded by a caring faculty, can glimpse a place where ethics are, every so often, paramount.