Creating a Culture of Integrity

Oct. 2, 2009 -- David Callahan, public policy activist and author of The Cheating Culture: Why Americans Are Doing Wrong to Get Ahead and The Moral Center: How We Can Reclaim Our Country from Die Hard Extremists, Rogue Corporations, Hollywood Hacks and Pretend Patriots, will present "Creating a Culture of Integrity." His talk, at 11 a.m., Thursday October 15 in Graham Chapel, is being hosted by the Center for Academic Integrity Conference, the Assembly Series and the Center for Ethics and Human Values. The event is free and open to the public.

In The Moral Center, Callahan examines seven of our most polarizing conflicts - family, sex, media, crime, work, poverty and patriotism, and he presents unexpected solutions that lay out a new road map to the American center. The Moral Center is a follow-up text to Callahan's The Cheating Culture.

If we were given the opportunity to cheat on our taxes, or to illegally hook up to our neighbor's cable, Callahan thinks most of us would do so. In The Cheating Culture, Callahan notes that cheating has risen in the last 20 years as evidenced by corporate scandals, doping by professional athletes, and plagiarizing. He puts the blame on the ruthlessly competitive economic climate of the last two decades and claims that the "Winning" class has enough money and clout that they can cheat without consequences, while the "Anxious" class believes that cheating is the only way to succeed in a winner-take-all world.

Callahan is a cofounder of Demos, a public policy center based in New York. It is a multi-issue national organization that combines research, policy development and advocacy to influence public debates and catalyze change. Callahan serves as Demos' international program director and senior fellow. Additionally, he has authored several books and numerous articles. He earned his bachelor's from Hampshire College and a Ph.D. in politics from Princeton University.

A series of campus events precedes the lecture, including panel discussions on the state of integrity at Washington University (7:30 p.m., Monday, October 12, in the Danforth University Center, Room 276); intellectual property (5:30 p.m., Tuesday, October 13, in the Danforth University Center, Room 276); and why employers and graduate schools look at integrity, not perfection (7:00 p.m., Wednesday, October 14 in Umrath Lounge). For more information visit http://www.academicintegrityweek.wustl.edu.