Dixie State College Business and Ethics Forum

Dixie State College of Utah’s Udvar-Hazy School of Business continues its bi-monthly noontime Business and Ethics Forum series featuring a presentation by Kevin Kuzia, who serves as Global Business Practices and Compliance Officer for Pratt & Whitney, a division of United Technologies Corporation (UTC).

Kuzia is responsible for promoting and implementing UTC's Business Practices program and the UTC Code of Ethics, which embodies UTC corporate principles and standards of conduct, throughout Pratt & Whitney. He joined Pratt & Whitney’s legal services department in 2002 as a contract manager and became Global Business Practices Officer for UTC Fire & Security in 2009. Kuzia earned a Bachelor’s degree in Politics at Fairfield University and completed his law degree at the University of Connecticut School of Law.

The series will continue March 29, with a presentation by Kenny Miller, manager of The Village Bank, DSC Vice President for Administrative Services Stan Plewe will wrap up the semester schedule with a presentation April 12.

The Business and Ethics Forum is every other Thursday throughout the fall and spring semesters, with each guest lecturer speaking on business matters in their respective professions and how to integrate ethics into the discussion. The Forums will return to its regular bi-monthly schedule for the 2012 spring semester beginning in January.

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.