Dixie State College Business and Ethics Forum

Dixie State College of Utah's Udvar-Hazy School of Business continues its 2012-13 bi-monthly noontime Business and Ethics Forum series, featuring a presentation on the nation's space program by Dr. Joseph C. Sharp. DSC students, faculty and staff, the entire Washington County business community, and the general public are all invited to attend.


Dr. Sharp earned his Ph.D. at the University of Utah in 1960, and spent 19 years at the Walter Reed Institute of Research, both as an officer and civilian, and was its Director of Neuropsychiatry. He would go on to work for NASA at the Ames Research Center, where he served as both Director of Life Sciences and Director of Space Research. Sharp then returned to Utah and taught both human physiology and physics as an adjunct professor at Southern Utah University for six years. He also served as a consultant for Utah State University’s Space Dynamics Laboratory and for the U of U’s biomedical grant programs, which were funded by NASA.

The series will continue Feb. 7, with a presentation by Steve Johnson, DSC Director of Public Relations and Marketing. In addition, Ken Hinton, partner with the firm Hinton Burdick CPA & Advisors, will address the forum Feb. 21; Tyler Hoopes, administrator at Hurricane Health & Rehab, will speak March 7; Christine Healy, human resource director with Blue Bunny, will present to the forum March 21; and retired CEO Bud Bracken will wrap up the semester schedule with a presentation April 11.

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 sorely needed into today’s business world. His hope is that by the time students leave Dixie State, 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 Dixie State College 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.