For the third time in the past five years, Chaminade University took top honors at an international academic competition for business students. Hosting the Ethics Case Study Competition was the International Accreditation Council for Business Education (IACBE) at its annual conference and assembly meeting in San Francisco.
Students on the winning team were Victoria Alakai, Ave Galea’i, Anthony Lamorena and Jennifer Tolentino. Serving as coaches and mentors from Chaminade’s School of Business and Communication were faculty members Wayne Tanna, Carolyn Kuriyama, Aaron Williamson and IACBE “Teacher of the Year” Richard Kido.
Peregrine Academic Services awarded the team a $1,000 scholarship.
When making their presentations to panels of judges, students explained legal, financial, economic, marketing, management and other relevant issues. Then they made recommendations for action grounded in ethical theory.
Since Chaminade is a Native Hawaiian-serving institution, the students developed a case study regarding the transition of land at Kalaupapa on Molokai, where thousands of Hansen’s Disease sufferers lived in seclusion since 1866.
The ethical dilemma involved preserving the legacy of those patients versus providing homestead lands to Native Hawaiians on a waiting list.
After making their initial presentations, all teams in the competition were given just four hours to analyze and offer recommendations regarding a case study of the 2015 terrorist attack in San Bernardino, California.
The basic question was: Should a technology company assist the government in accessing people’s private information for any purpose in the name of national security?
A total of five teams entered the IACBE competition, including a group of graduate students from Germany.