ST. GEORGE – Dixie State College of Utah’s Udvar-Hazy School of Business continues its bi-monthly noontime Business and Ethics Forum series this Thursday, Nov. 3, with a presentation on ethical real estate practices by ERA real estate agent H. Thayne Houston.
The Business and Ethics Forum, presented every other Thursday throughout DSC’s fall and spring semesters, will be held in the Boeing Auditorium (Room 121) of the DSC Udvar-Hazy Business Building. Anyone is welcome to attend and admission is free.
Houston has more than 27 years of business management experience and is recognized as a Top-15 Broker in the ERA Real Estate franchise. He has grown his company from a single location with 20 agents, to five offices with over 100 agents. Houston has served as president of the Washington County Board of Realtors, chair of the Grievance and Professional Standards Committee, and as Dean of the Leadership UAR program for the Utah Association of Realtors. He has also been a real estate education instructor and currently serves as a Governor-appointed real estate commissioner for the Utah Division of Real Estate.
The series will continue Nov. 17, with a presentation by DSC Certified Public Accountant Stacy Carroll.
Melvin Wittwer, principal and officer of Wittwer Management, LLC, will wrap up the semester schedule with a presentation Dec. 1.
Each speaker throughout the semester will speak on business matters in their respective professions and have been asked to integrate ethics into the discussion.
The bi-monthly forum, along with campus’ Institute for Business Integrity, was created by former DSC president Dr. Robert Huddleston in 2006, as a way to integrate ethics into the curriculum, and have it serve as a blueprint to ensure that students graduate with a set of ethical tools to help them get along in the professional world.
In 2006-07, Dixie State’s business program sought initial accreditation with the high profile Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB). In order to become accredited with the AACSB, ethics were required to be integrated into the college’s business curriculum. As a result, each business class on the DSC campus now includes an ethical component. Dr. Huddleston noted that the business forums will give students – and current and prospective local business owners – an added dose of ethics training that is so needed in today’s business world. His hope is that by the time students leave DSC, they have been exposed to enough ethical cases that, when they get out in the workforce, they will have the wherewithal and the intestinal fortitude to do the right thing, even when their job might be on the line.
“The Institute for Business Integrity has brought an important opportunity for the business community, as well as DSC faculty and students, to emphasize the significance of social responsibility for business and industry in Washington County,” said Huddleston. “As research indicates, ethics contribute to employee commitment, investor loyalty, customer satisfaction and to profits.”
The DSC Institute for Business Integrity is a partnership between the Udvar-Hazy School of Business at Dixie State College, the Small Business Development Center, the Washington County Economic Development Council, and the St. George Area Chamber of Commerce.
For questions regarding the DSC Institute for Business Integrity forums, contact Dr. Huddleston at [email protected] or 435-652-7740.