Cintas Institute for Business Ethics at Xavier University: New name, expanded mission

2001 was the year the Enron scandal hit the fan, symbolizing a period of corporate excess.  Not so coincidentally, it was also the year Xavier University started a center for business ethics, beginning a dialogue about right and wrong ways to makeprofits and be successful. The center, formerly known as the Center for Business Ethics and Social Responsibility. was just renamed the Cintas Institute for Business Ethics at Xavier University, with support from Cintas founder and Chairman Richard Farmer and the Farmer Family Foundation, and Cintas Vice Chairman Bob Kohlhepp.

The center’s mission is to “help the faculty prepare our graduates to do the ‘hard right’ as opposed to the ‘easy wrong,'” says Director Paul Fiorelli.  From humble beginnings, Farmer launched Cintas Corp., a business that was recently ranked among Fortune magazine’s list of “America’s Most Admired Companies” for the eighth consecutive year.  The support of the Farmer  Foundation and Kohlhepp will improve the focus on ethics in Xavier’s business curriculum and stimulate research by its faculty on the topic, says Ali Malekzadeh, dean of Xavier’s Williams College of Business.

Writer: David Holthaus
Source: Laurel Bauer, Xavier University