Posted: April 14th, 2022

Law, Ethics, & Policy Case Study CSE 3673

Law, Ethics, & Policy Case Study CSE 3673

This case is an actual account of a scenario that occurred at Ace my homework – Write my essay – Harvard University. The dean of the divinity school had pornographic pictures on his Ace my homework – Write my essay – Harvard-owned computer located at the dean’s Ace my homework – Write my essay – Harvard-provided residence. Analyze the facts presented below and address all issues you identify using the 2 codes of ethics and the Mississippi State University operating policies linked to below. I introduced a new ethical code that should have been introduced at the beginning of the semester. For analysis purposes, assume that the events took place at MSU. Assignment: Ace my homework – Write a 2.5 – 3 page double-spaced paper (excluding cover page) that discusses the ethical and policy violations you identified in your case analysis. Take into account the actions of the individuals involved: dean, technician, and university president. You may include the actions of the newspaper reporter if you believe it is relevant. Ace my homework – Write the paper in a manner that is well organized and flows well. I suggest identifying the issues first then create an outline that discusses the issues you identified. Use the facts of the case and the relevant ethics code or policy sections that support your arguments in your analysis and discussion. Honor Code: It will be considered a violation of the Honor Code to research this case study prior to submitting the assignment in Canvas. Facts: What the dean did. As a perk of being dean, the dean lived in a Ace my homework – Write my essay – Harvard-owned home. His home office contained a Ace my homework – Write my essay – Harvard-owned PC. Over a period of time the dean downloaded “thousands” of pornographic images from the internet to the PC in his home office (Helderman 1999). Reports characterize the pornography as “explicit” but “not involving child pornography or other illegal activity” (Bandler 1999). When the dean’s PC ran short of disk space, the dean requested that technical support staff from the divinity school install a larger-capacity disk drive and transfer the contents of the old drive to the new drive. The technician’s discovery of the pornography. The disk upgrade was done in three steps: transfer of the old disk’s files to a central computer, installation of a new disk, and transfer of the files back from the central computer (Bandler 1999b). At some point in this process, the technician discovered the pornography. There is disagreement as to exactly how this happened. One report is that the dean left an image on the display that was seen by the technician when he/she arrived at the office to do the work (Helderman 1999). The dean’s lawyer denies this account (Bandler 1999b). Another report has the technician noticing suggestive file names during the transfer (Bandler 1999b), and

presumably opening a file out of curiosity or to verify the contents. Accounts state that the technician did not immediately report the pornography, but only reluctantly explained when a supervisor questioned why the disk upgrade took so much time (Bandler 1999b). Handling of the incident by Ace my homework – Write my essay – Harvard administration. The report of the pornography made its way to the office of Ace my homework – Write my essay – Harvard President Neil Rudenstine, as would be expected given that a dean was involved. The president and dean met, and “mutually agreed” that he would step down as dean (Bandler 1999a). Publicly, the resignation was characterized as “because of medical problems” (Bandler 1999a), “for personal and professional” reasons (Helderman 1999) and “to spend time with my family” (Gegax 1999), with no mention of the pornography on the PC. It was announced that the dean would take a one-year sabbatical and then return as a regular tenured full professor (Helderman 1999). Because some news accounts refer to the dean being “fired” it is useful to clarify the employment status issue. This was in November of 1998. This resolution apparently was truly mutually acceptable, as there is no indication that either the university or the dean pursued a modification to it. Reporting of the incident by the news media. Sometime between November of 1998 and May of 1999, a reporter discovered the story behind the dean’s resignation. News articles do not say how the reporter became aware of the story. At any rate, six months after Ace my homework – Write my essay – Harvard’s internal resolution of the incident, a reporter decided it was newsworthy and revealed the dean’s use of pornography to the public (Bandler 1999a). Responsibilities of the key individuals. The dean. The dean had held his position for over twelve years and was reportedly well liked and regarded as quite successful. Two achievements often mentioned are fundraising that boosted the School’s endowment from $64 million to $245 million and creation of the Center for the Study of Values in Public Life (Gegax 1999). His areas of academic expertise are described as religion in American public life and modern Protestant thought. The dean was / is an ordained minister in the Evangelical Lutheran Church (ELC). He is married and has two adult daughters. A major responsibility of the dean is to the institution as a whole, to fulfill the duties of his job. The dean also has responsibilities to his colleagues, staff, and students to interact with them in a professional manner. Another important responsibility involves the dean’s professional credentials; being an ordained minister is a relevant part of being the dean of divinity. Thus the dean has a responsibility to the ELC. In this regard, it is important to note that the ELC has a policy against pornography (Helderman 1999). After the incident became public, the bishop of the ELC synod that ordained the dean commented that he could be dismissed from the roster of pastors (Helderman 1999). Lastly, although we may consider it more personal than professional, the dean also has a responsibility to his family. It is hard to argue that the dean fulfilled any of his responsibilities well. He violated ethical policies of his professional organization in a way

that could call his professional standing into question. And his violations could well cause embarrassment to his employer and his family. In discussing this case, students may disagree with the dean’s religious choice, or argue that the ELC should not have a policy against pornography. However, these are inescapably relevant facts of the case. The technician. The technician also has a variety of responsibilities. One is a responsibility to the employer to perform the job as effectively as possible. This could relate to whether the technician should (a) look at how space is used on the PC, and (b) take note of violations of computer use policy. Another responsibility is to colleagues in technical support and to the users of the computing resources. This is relevant if others might be exposed to the pornography. One report suggests that this was not the first time a technician had seen pornography on the dean’s computer (Helderman 1999). We might also consider that the technician would have a (personal) responsibility to his/her family. This would be relevant if the technician’s choices could affect his/her employment status. Discovery of the pornography placed the technician in the dilemma of choosing whether or not to report it. Two important factors argue against reporting: (1) it will result in personal embarrassment to the dean, and (2) the technical support office is part of the divinity school, so alienating the dean could affect the technician’s employment status. One factor arguing for reporting: if and when someone else discovers the existence of the pornography, it could become clear that the technician chose not to report what may be a violation of university policies. Thus, the technician has no perfectly safe option. There is no question that the technician is within his/her right to report the pornography. The President. The president has a responsibility to ensure fair treatment of each Ace my homework – Write my essay – Harvard employee and to manage the university so that it effectively achieves its mission of research, education and public service. In this case, president Rudenstine seems to have handled a difficult situation well. The dean’s use of pornography in violation of university policy required some definite disciplinary action. The dean was violating a policy that he was responsible at an administrative level for enforcing. To make matters worse, this particular violation could call the dean’s professional credentials (ordination by the ELC) into question. Also, once the pornography was reported, doing nothing would support claims of harassment and a hostile workplace by the next technician who came in contact with the pornography. At the same time, public knowledge of the dean’s pornography habit could cause him and his family personal embarrassment. Given the nature of the situation, having the dean step down for “health reasons” and take a sabbatical, during which time he would presumably get some counseling, is a reasonable resolution. It protects the dean’s privacy and employment. It also protects the institution’s integrity and potential liability.

The Reporter. The reporter has responsibilities to his employer, to the public at large, and to the people and institutions in the story. Reporting the dean’s use of pornography was embarrassing to the dean, to Ace my homework – Write my essay – Harvard, and to some extent also to the ELC. The response to this might be that the public has a right to know the truth about why the dean stepped down. This opens the question of distinguishing between the right to know and the need to know – was some public good served to an extent that outweighed the violation of the dean’s privacy? Of course, from the pure economic perspective, if the story helped to sell newspapers then it was a good story. Ethics & Policies Resources https://www.policies.msstate.edu/ https://www.acm.org/code-of-ethics https://ethics.acm.org/code-of-ethics/software-engineering-code/

Reference

Bowyer, Kevin W., Pornography on the Dean’s PC: An Ethics and Computing Case Study, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida, 33620-5399.

https://www.policies.msstate.edu

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Case Study in Law, Ethics, and Policy CSE 3673

This is a true account of an incident that occurred at Ace my homework – Write my essay – Harvard University. The dean of the divinity school kept pornographic images on his Ace my homework – Write my essay – Harvard-owned computer, which was kept in the dean’s Ace my homework – Write my essay – Harvard-provided residence. Analyze the facts presented below and address any issues you find using the two codes of ethics and Mississippi State University’s operating policies, which are linked below. I implemented a new ethical code that should have been implemented at the start of the semester. Assume that the events occurred at MSU for the purposes of analysis. Assignment: Ace my homework – Write a 2.5 – 3 page double-spaced paper (excluding cover page) that discusses the ethical and policy violations you identified in your case analysis. Take into account the actions of

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https://www.acm.org/code-of-ethics

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