Dixie State University Business and Ethics Forum

Dixie State University’s Udvar-Hazy School of Business will host its final bi-monthly noontime Business and Ethics Forum of the 2012-13 academic year on Thursday, April 11, featuring a presentation by longtime Utah businessman and CEO Byron Lee “Bud” Bracken.

Bracken earned degrees in Business and Communication at Brigham Young University, and competed graduate studies at UCLA. He began his professional career as the Director of Public Relations for Sunkist Growers, followed by a stint as a vice president and corporate marketing council for Transamerica Corp. Bracken then became the founder and president of three companies, including B.L. Bracken and Associates, Inc., Management Exchange Corporation; and Bracken Custom Homes, Inc.

In addition, Bracken served as president of the Southern Utah Home Builders Association and the chairman of the Southern Utah Parade of Homes, and was a director in the missionary department for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

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 introduce ethics into the discussion. The Forum will resume its regular bi-monthly schedule for the 2013 fall semester beginning this September.

The bi-monthly forum, along with campus’ Institute for Business Integrity, was created by former DSU 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 DSU 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 DSU 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 DSU Institute for Business Integrity is a partnership between the Udvar-Hazy School of Business at Dixie State University, the Small Business Development Center, the Washington County Economic Development Council, and the St. George Area Chamber of Commerce.