College of Business adopts Principles for Responsible Management Education

Responding to the global call for business schools and academic associations to advance corporate social responsibility worldwide, the College of Business and Administration at UCCS has committed to adhere to the Principles for Responsible Management Education.

The Principles for Responsible Management Education provide a framework for academic institutions to advance the broader cause of corporate social responsibility and incorporate universal values into curricula and research. As a framework, the PRME are meant to guide a school’s effort to continuously improve curricula and research with regard to issues of corporate citizenship and sustainability. The PRME are not a substitute for existing accreditation and quality assurance systems, although some accrediting institutions value the principles. The UCCS College of Business is accredited the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, which accredits the world’s top business schools and was one of the eight organizations on the PRME steering committee.

“The Principles for Responsible Management Education aligns with the UCCS College of Business vision, mission, and values that include ethics, integrity, preparing students for careers, and stakeholder dialogue,” Venkat Reddy, dean, said. “Our participation in PRME recognizes the college’s ongoing commitment to include responsible management in its curriculum and conduct relevant research in corporate social responsibility and sustainability.”

Tracy Gonzalez-Padron, assistant professor, Business, was one of more than 260 academic leaders, as well as representatives of business, civil society and the United Nations, who gathered at UN Headquarters in New York in December for the First Global Forum for Responsible Management Education.

“One example of how these principles fit into our current undergraduate and MBA programs is student projects for nonprofit organizations, projects relating to sustainability, and social audits of local organizations,” Gonzalez-Padron said. “Students come away with practical knowledge and a greater awareness of the impact of responsible and sustainable business practices.”

"Sustainable business practices will be a foundation of successful enterprises going forward,” Tom Arata, a vice president of St. Paul, Minn.-based Ecolab and 1987 UCCS graduate, said. “Business school graduates with solid grounding in this area will be well-positioned not only for employment, but for leadership roles as well."

The PRME were unveiled by a group of scholars and leading academic organizations at the UN Global Compact Leaders Summit in July 2007. The initiative was developed by an international task force of 60 deans, university presidents and official representatives of leading business schools. It was co-convened by the United Nations Global Compact, the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, the European Foundation for Management Development, the Aspen Institute’s Business and Society Program, the European Academy for Business in Society, the Globally Responsible Leadership Initiative and Net Impact.

“The Principles for Responsible Management Education have the capacity to take the case for universal values and business into classrooms on every continent,” said UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in his closing remarks at the 2007 Global Compact Leaders Summit.

In its first year of development, the initiative seeks to give adopting academic institutions a leading role: to define a set of good practices on implementation and reporting of the PRME. For more information on PRME, visit www.unprme.org.