College of Business Administration

Social and Ethical Issues in Business

Carlton Oaks School Fundraiser

GROUP MEMBERS:

Heather Kenney
Valarie Padilla
Marisa Randall
Lore Schmidt

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:

Our mission was to help Carlton Oaks School raise money for multi-media equipment and other educational tools. Carlton Oaks School is a kindergarten through eighth grade educational institution. It is a magnet school in the Santee school district and has many physically and mentally challenged students in attendance. Due to the large student body, the school is in dire need of computers and other educational equipment. Our original plan was to have the student body sell sports bottles with the school logo imprinted on them, with proceeds going to the enhancement of their multi-media center.

We contacted Imprinted Products to ask for their assistance by donating the sports bottles for our project. Due to time and financial constraints we were unable to proceed with our initial proposal. However, Imprinted Products gave several alternatives to help us with our social change project. They offered to supply us with pens and pencils bearing the Carlton Oaks School logo, excess products with corporate logos, or products with college and university logos. We choose the latter in hopes of planting the seed of the importance of higher education in young children.

Upon arrival at Imprinted Products we were astonished by the magnitude of their generosity. The donation consisted of an entire pallet of various products including mugs, glasses, keychains, pins, sports bottles and other assorted items bearing the logos of colleges and universities from across the nation. Realizing we had no way to transport such a large quantity of products to the school, Imprinted Products offered to deliver the items for us.

On April 17th we set up a table at Carlton Oaks School's semi-annual Open House. We handed out the items to students and their parents along with flyers detailing our goal of "Planting the seed of Higher Education" while giving recognition to Imprinted Products for their generous donation.

Open House began at 5:30 p.m. with pizza and punch. The book fair opened at 6:30 p.m. and the classrooms opened at 7:00 p.m. We started setting up at 4:30 p.m. Utilizing two long conference tables, provided by the school, we had more items than the two tables could hold. By 6:45 p.m. only a few magnets and hat pins were remaining. Most of the children we talked to knew they wanted to go to college but did not have a specific college in mind.

Ethical Reasoning
Every form of ethical reasoning requires individuals to make sound ethical decisions. Higher education provides the tools necessary to help make these decisions. The following three theories are incorporated as support for our project.

Utilitarianism
Encouraging children to pursue higher education provides economic, social, and ethical benefits to society. The economic benefit is the result of producing individuals who are independent, productive members of society. Next, the social benefit involves individuals who are more effective in interacting with others and dealing with everyday situations that may arise. Finally, reasoning serves as the foundation for making ethical decisions. The more knowledge an individual has, the better their ability to make sound ethical decisions. According to James Rachels "Utilitarianism is designed for decision making in the situations we actually face."

Ethical Egoism
According to Robert Olson in his book The Morality of Self-Interest, "The individual is most likely to contribute to social betterment by rationally pursuing his own best long-range interests." The self-interested desire to achieve higher education provides the catalyst for young children to aspire to attend the college of their choice. Self-interest is what motivates students to compete for higher grades and academic excellence. Our project helped to provide added motivation to continue their education beyond high school and to develop awareness of the unlimited variety of colleges and universities available.

Libertarianism
Exposing the children's minds to the vast array of higher educational possibilities opens the door for free, informed personal choice. Libertarianism suggests that right actions consist in maximizing this capacity. The products donated at the Open House sparked questions from the children such as "Where is this college?" and "Do you go there?."

Conclusion
Although we had to alter our initial project proposal, we feel the final outcome was a success. We enjoyed observing and interacting with the students, parents, and teachers of Carlton Oaks School. The success of our project was due in part to the generous donations provided by Imprinted Products, and our ability to achieve our goal of "planting the seed" of the importance of higher education in both the students and their parents.

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