PITT'S GRADUATE SCHOOL OF PUBLIC AND INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS RECEIVES GIFT TO EXPLORE ETHICS AND ACCOUNTABILITY Initial Effort to be Lecture Series

PITTSBURGH, December 18 -- The Graduate School of Public and International Affairs (GSPIA) at the University of Pittsburgh has received a $75,000 gift from LaVonne and Glen Johnson to fund a two-year pilot program on Ethics and Accountability in Public and Nonprofit Organizations.

LaVonne Johnson earned her master's degree in public administration from GSPIA in 1980. This gift is a forerunner to a decision by the Johnsons to establish a unitrust for GSPIA that will permanently support a program addressing issues of ethics and accountability. This program, to be based in GSPIA, will incorporate ethical issues faced by domestic and international leaders. A partnership with several other schools at Pitt will integrate issues facing the private sector.

According to GSPIA Dean Carolyn Ban, the pilot program will feature three components:

• A Lecture Series on Ethics and Accountability, featuring prominent speakers from academia as well as leaders from government, nonprofit, and private sector organizations to stimulate public dialogue among scholars, policy makers, journalists, students, public administrators, watchdog organizations, and public citizens;

• A Regional Conference on Teaching Ethics and Accountability, consisting of two days of papers and panels for faculty from educational institutions in the tri-state area interested in developing and teaching courses on these issues; and,

• An International Conference on Policy and Research Issues Related to Ethics, Accountability, and Social Responsibility in the Public Sector, designed to bring together leading experts from the US and Europe.

"This pilot program will allow GSPIA to build on its capacity to mobilize resources to address ethics and accountability issues -- whether in university teaching, public policy, or administrative practice," said Ban.

The Lecture Series begins in January, 2001, and will involve leading thinkers in nonprofit administration, bioethics, and risk management, who will address such questions as:

Does corporate and government funding to nonprofits come with strings attached?

How can we identify potential risks and avoid disasters stemming from new technologies?

Is the cloning of human beings a serious ethical problem?

Why should we lift the veil of mystery for all the actors who play a role

in global government?

The Lecture Series schedule is as follows:

January 10, 2001

Title: The Shifting Reliance of Nonprofits on Government and Business:

Implications for the Accountability of Nonprofit Organizations Speakers:

Barbara Romzek, professor of public administration, University of

Kansas

Dennis Young, professor of nonprofit management and adjunct professor of

economics, Case Western Reserve University

February 8

Title: Risking It all: The Ethical Dilemma Posed by Human Fallibility and Dangerous Technologies

Speaker:

Lloyd J. Dumas, professor of political economy, University of

Texas at Dallas

Discussant:

Indira Nair, vice provost for education, Carnegie Mellon

March 29

Title: Ethical Challenges of the Genetic Age

Speaker:

Allan Buchanan, professor of philosophy, University of Arizona

April 11

Title: The Politics of Transparency: Openness and Accountability in

Multinational and Supranational Organizations

Speaker:

Ann Florini, senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

Lectures will begin at 4 p.m., in Room 2K56 Posvar Hall (formerly the Forbes Quadrangle Building), 230 S. Bouquet Street on the Pitt campus, followed by receptions at 6 p.m. Lectures are free and open to the public, but reservations are required. For more information, or to register, call 412-648-2204 or e-mail gspialum+@pitt.edu.

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