DePaul University’s Institute for Business and Professional Ethics will host "From the Universities to the Marketplace: The Business Ethics Journey," the fifth annual university conference promoting business ethics, Oct. 29-31.

"The goal of the conference is to create a more ethical world by changing dramatically the hearts and minds of individuals and organizations with whom we interact," said Laura Pincus Hartman, consulting director of the institute. Topics to be explored include creating a more ethical workplace, ethical issues presented by new technology and ethics in international business.

"The conference is distinctive because its main purpose is to bring together academicians and business practitioners to discuss ethics," Hartman said. "The academics will have the opportunity to learn about various workplace pressures placed on high level business decision-makers, while those same decision-makers will have an opportunity to learn from academicians’ research on business ethics." Approximately 150 people are expected to attend.

Launched in 1993, the annual business ethics conference has rotated each year between DePaul, St. John and Niagra universities, three Vincentian institutions with strong commitments to teaching and fostering business ethics. DePaul was chosen to host the 1998 conference so that the event could be part of the university’s centennial commemoration, a yearlong series of academic and celebratory events marking the 100^th anniversary of the university’s founding.

The program of the conference focuses on six different half-day discussion tracks on the role of spirituality in business, ethics in international business, ethical issues presented by new technology, creating a more ethical workplace, lessons learned through ethical challenges, and the alignment of practices and ethical policies.

Highlights include:

• A keynote presentation by Rev. Raymond Baumhart, S.J., former president, Loyola University – Chicago, on "Spirituality: A Rare Arrow in an Administrator's Quiver," at 8 a.m. Oct. 29.

• "Values Across the Century," a benefit gala for the institute at 6 p.m. Oct. 29. The event will feature a short play called "Working Ourselves to Death," by Aaron Freeman, Al Gini and Belinda Bremner. The play will be followed by the presentation of ethics awards to Deloitte & Touche and Wicklander Printing in recognition of their commitment to active ethical leadership. The gala is sponsored by Sears, Roebuck & Co.

• A session at 9:30 a.m., Oct. 31, on how to learn from ethical lapses.

• A keynote address by William Giffin, vice president of Ethics and Business Policy at Sears, Roebuck & Co., on the aligning of ethical practices and policies at 12:30 p.m. Oct. 31.

Hartman, a DePaul associate professor of management, began a leave of absence from DePaul this fall but will return to host the conference. She has been director of DePaul’s Institute for Business and Professional Ethics for the last four years and is on leave to become a visiting professor and the Grainger Chair in Ethics at the School of Business at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Owais Succari, a DePaul management professor, has been named acting director of DePaul’s institute for the 1998-99 academic year.

Conference registration costs $350 per person. Tickets to the gala benefit only are $100 per person. For more information, call the institute at 312/362-6199.

Note: The conference is being held at the Standard Club, 320 S. Plymouth Court. Due to club policy, the club requests that the name of the club not be published. Because of limited media access, journalists interested in covering the conference must make prior arrangements.