1. Lynn Brewer delivers Mission Week keynote address tomorrow
2. Hear Dr. Lisa Hanson’s hardest choice she ever had to make
3. How scrupulous are you?
4. Ethical Dilemmas on Film running through Thursday
5. A daily reflection

 

1. Lynn Brewer delivers Mission Week keynote address tomorrow

Lynn Brewer, former Enron executive and whistleblower on corporate corruption, highlights this year’s Mission Week theme of “Challenged to Choose: the Courage to Act” with her address tomorrow, Thursday, Feb. 8, at 4 p.m. in the Varsity Theatre.

All Marquette faculty engaged in the teaching of ethics are also invited to join Brewer and faculty colleagues for a roundtable discussion, “Instilling Ethical Values in Our Students,” from 2 to 3:15 p.m., in AMU 163. Refreshments will be provided. The program is sponsored by the Office of the Provost.

During her tenure at Enron, where she was responsible for risk management in energy operations, e-commerce for Enron’s water subsidiary and competitive intelligence for broadband services, Brewer witnessed illegal and corrupt dealings including bank fraud, espionage, power price manipulation and gross overstatements to the media, public and financial world. Since leaving Enron, she became the founding chairman and CEO of The Integrity Institute, which independently assesses and certifies corporate integrity at the request of organizations for the benefit of their stakeholders.

For the complete Mission Week schedule, go online.

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3. How scrupulous are you?

During this Mission Week celebration, be sure to take a look at “A Question of Scruples,” flyers posted in buildings throughout campus. Consider your own responses to various ethical choices by reading the giant question cards from the well-known game and online.

4. Ethical Dilemmas on Film running through Thursday

Marquette’s Channel 95 is broadcasting a series of films that reflect the Mission Week theme of “Challenged to Choose: the Courage to Act,” including “The Constant Gardener,” “Erin Brockovich,” “Good Night and Good Luck,” “North Country,” and “Tears of the Sun.” Broadcasts are at 9 p.m. through Feb. 8. The series is sponsored by the Office of Residence Life.

5. A daily reflection  

How often we must struggle with issues both big and small, choosing whether or not we will make the “right” decision.

I think with gratitude of those whose ethical decisions have profoundly affected my life. Mother Teresa, whom I was blessed to stand beside in 1981, fully aware of her saintliness and the good she did each day. The Marquette instructor who saw a struggling student and, perhaps moving into a gray area of privacy rights, subtly informed her parents that there may be a need to intervene. The teacher who put himself between a disturbed gunman and vulnerable students. The colleague who refused to accept that, for monetary reasons, services could not be provided to a child because that refusal “wasn’t right.” The friend who, knowing that a child would be born with severe disabilities, bore and raised that child with love and, in the process, taught many others about human dignity and the joy of a child’s smallest accomplishment.

Strong impressions, ones which make me question my own capacity to act with courage in the face of true adversity.

This week’s Gospels tell the stories of Jesus’ outreach … healing the sick who touch his cloak (Mark 6:53-56), casting the demon out of a child (Mark 7: 24-30), curing the deaf man with a speech impediment (Mark 6: 31-37) and, finally, the story of the loaves and the fishes (Mark 8:1-10). We too are surrounded — both in our private lives and in our community — by those who are physically or mentally ill, those who are hungry or homeless, those who are scared and vulnerable. Will I, will we have “The Courage to Act?”

— Mary Pat Pfeil
Senior Director of University Communication

Reflections are sponsored by the Faber Center for Ignatian Spirituality.

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