Led by our participation in the Daniels Fund Ethics Initiative Collegiate Program, the Department of Business Ethics and Legal Studies in the Daniels College of Business strives to integrate ethics not only into our curriculum but also intro the lives of our students and community members. This is done through innovative programming at all levels from undergraduate education to our executive MBA students. This foundation of ethics allows our students to ponder what it means follow ethical principles in business and to live an authentic life.
Get Involved
Please contact the Daniels Fund Ethics Initiative director, Professor Corey Ciocchetti, to learn more and get involved.
Our programs represent a smattering of the impactful programs that are possible because of the Daniels Fund Ethics Initiative Collegiate Program. Each of these events/classes is intentionally designed to incorporate at least one of these key principles:
Integrity
Act with honesty in all situations
Trust
Build trust in all stakeholder relationships
Rule of Law
Comply with the spirit and intent of laws and regulations
Respect
Honor the rights, freedoms, views, and property of others
Fairness
Engage in fair competition and create equitable and just relationships
Accountability
Accept responsibility in all situations
Viability
Create long-term value for all relevant stakeholders
Transparency
Maintain open and truthful communications
Some of our current programs include:
Ethics Boot Camp
Our signature program in the Daniels College of Business is the Ethics Boot Camp. It is a required two-day immersive experience for all of our students enrolled in the required business law and ethics class. At EBC, they learn how to apply the Daniels Fund Ethics Initiative principles in real life situations. We invite speakers from all over the nation to come speak on their areas of expertise. Our students also build and deliver hundreds of bears per year to patients at Children’s Hospital Colorado. Over 500 students participate in this program each year. We are excited to head into our twelfth year of offering Ethics Boot Camp!
Future of Ethics Conference
The inaugural Future of Ethics Conference was held in January 2023. This was a full-day event where professionals from across the mountain west region came to campus to explore how ethics will look in various fields over the next few decades. Session topics included the future of ethics and ethical leadership, artificial intelligence, medicine, politics, the legal environment, sports and psychology. One highlight was a session from an expert on play about how playing makes both adults and children more ethical. The closing keynote shared a story about moral failure at a prominent company and how the new CEO had to report the wrongdoing and critically change the culture. We look forward to offering a Future of Ethics Conference every year. See the promo video below and make plans to attend the next conference:
Consortium Case Competition
The Collegiate Program Case Competition challenges students to create practical and effective ethical solutions to real world business problems using the Daniels Fund Ethics Initiative principles. The Daniels College of Business sends both an undergraduate and a graduate team to the competition each spring. The Daniels College of Business graduate team won First Place in 2022 and in 2023! In 2023, the undergraduate team placed second – our highest placement ever. This is a fun and exciting opportunity for the students to gain real world experience and create lifelong connections.
The Daniels Fund Ethics Initiative Collegiate Program drives the strengthening of principle-based ethics education throughout each participating school. The ultimate goal is to instill a high standard of ethics in our young people. To date, more than 450,000 students, faculty and businesspeople have been reached by the Collegiate Program.
The Daniels Fund Ethics Initiative Collegiate Program was established by the Daniels Fund Board of Directors in 2009 as a 5-year pilot. The effort was officially launched in early 2010 with eight business schools at universities in Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming as initial partners.
In 2019, the Daniels Fund board approved funding for the current phase of the program, which now consists of 12 partners.
Bill Daniels, namesake of our College
The story of Bill Daniels, widely regarded as “the father of cable television,” is one of vision, entrepreneurship and humanitarianism. Daniels is recognized for both his great business sense and his commitment to ethics and integrity. Bill Daniels was born in Greeley, Colorado. After graduating from the New Mexico Military Institute in 1941, Daniels joined the United States Navy and became a decorated World War II naval fighter pilot. In 1952, Bill Daniels pioneered the use of microwave technology to relay television broadcast signals, which vastly improved television reception in rural communities. The success of this technology led him to form a successful cable brokerage firm.
In 1989, Daniels presented the University of Denver with a challenge grant to update its graduate business curriculum. The goal was to create a program that taught both the business fundamentals and values-based leadership skills needed to navigate business realities. In recognition of his tremendous contributions to the College, the faculty unanimously voted to change the College’s name to the Daniels College of Business in 1994. Bill Daniels’ successful reputation in the business community was matched only by his reputation as a philanthropist. During his lifetime, Daniels donated millions to educational and philanthropic organizations. Before his death in March 2000, he created The Daniels Fund, the largest charitable organization in Colorado, which supports initiatives and organizations throughout the Rocky Mountain region, including the Business Ethics Chair at Daniels College of Business.
Bill Daniels attributed his personal and professional success to his values and principles. He grouped his values into the key areas of honesty, integrity, humaneness, reliability, loyalty, innovation and community spirit. These core values guided how he lived his life and built his businesses.
Learn more about Bill Daniels and the Fund he established >
The prestigious Daniels Ethics Fellowships are awarded to faculty members who are particularly dedicated to business ethics and helpings students incorporate ethics and morality into their lives. Each Fellow proposes a project to accomplish for the academic year. For 2023, each of our ten Fellows are committed to further integrate ethics into each of the academic programs at the Daniels College of Business.
Contact Corey Ciocchetti for more information about becoming a Daniels Ethics Fellow.
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For more than two decades, Daniels has delivered on this promise by weaving strong values and ethics not only into our core curriculum but also into every aspect of the Daniels experience. We’ve created a learning environment that fosters integrity, responsibility and accountability among our students, faculty, alumni and partners.
At Daniels, our faculty is committed to teaching ethics across a broad spectrum of business disciplines. As one of the first business colleges to integrate business ethics and values-based leadership into our core curriculum, our faculty members are internationally recognized as leaders in the field.
In 1989, Bill Daniels approached the business college at the University of Denver with a challenge to integrate ethics education into our graduate curriculum in an effort to change the way future business leaders think and act. Today, ethics at Daniels is integrated into every level of student education—from undergraduates to MBA students to professional development for executives.
Daniels Ethical Leadership
To us, ethics is more than a buzz word. It is the foundation of all that we teach and who we are. This promise has made Daniels a leader in the field of business ethics. We teach that environmental responsibility, social responsibility and fiscal responsibility are not mutually exclusive values and that there is just one bottom line in business. Business professionals—and business education—must examine how ethical leadership can inform and improve business and vice versa. At Daniels, we teach students that being an effective business professional is about achieving financial success and creating positive change in society.
Our leadership in this area extends beyond the classroom with programs such as the Business Ethics Boot Camp, Daniels’ signature undergraduate program, and the Future of Ethics Conference, where DU students and leaders in the community gather to discuss everyday ethics issues.
The Gairald H. and Berenice L. Garrett Ethics in Business Award
This award is given by the Department of Business Ethics & Legal Studies at the spring Daniels Honors convocation. It is presented to a student or team of students with the most outstanding paper on ethics written by a graduate student(s) during the preceding academic year.
Under the Daniels Fund Ethics Initiative, 11 business schools and one law school strive to strengthen principle-based ethics education for students across the Rocky Mountain region.
- Colorado Mesa University
- Colorado State University
- New Mexico State University
- University of Colorado, Colorado Springs
- University of Colorado, Denver
- University of Colorado Law School
- University of Colorado Leeds School of Business
- University of Denver
- University of New Mexico
- University of Northern Colorado
- University of Utah
- University of Wyoming