Rutgers News Center

New leadership for Prudential Business Ethics Center

Raymond L. Bramucci (left) has been named director of the Prudential Business Ethics Center at Rutgers Business School–Newark and New Brunswick.

In addition, Peter R. Gillett, associate professor of accounting and information systems, has been appointed academic director at the Business Ethics Center. Edwin M. Hartman, the founding director of the Prudential Business Ethics Center at Rutgers, recently accepted a position at New York University after a distinguished 23-year career with Rutgers.

As Business Ethics Center director, Bramucci will be responsible for building and strengthening the center’s relationships with key members of the business community and the government sector to collaborate on matters of business ethics and ethical decisionmaking and to partner on activities such as executive education and training.

As academic director, Gillett will coordinate internal and external academic activities, including planning conferences and lectures; developing curriculum in degree programs and in customized in-house training and certificate programs; and forming and chairing an interdisciplinary faculty committee.

“We are very grateful to Ed Hartman for his visionary leadership of the center for the last five years. Ethical issues in business and public life still demand focused attention and we look forward with great enthusiasm to an active and outward-reaching center under the direction of Ray Bramucci and Peter Gillett,” said Rosa Oppenheim, the business school’s acting dean.

The Prudential Business Ethics Center takes a leading role in raising awareness and contributing to the theory and practice of business ethics. The center was founded in 2002 with a major grant from the Prudential Foundation.

- Bridget Daley

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Rutgers survey examines public response to recent spinach recall

A survey by the Food Policy Institute (FPI) at Rutgers has found that the Food and Drug Administration’s advisory on E.coli-contaminated spinach in September 2006 caught the attention of the majority of the American public but also confused consumers, many of whom did not have a good understanding of the details of the recall.

The survey, in which 1,200 Americans were interviewed by phone in November, showed that the FDA’s main message to consumers – that bagged fresh spinach had been contaminated and should not be eaten – was heard by 87 percent of Americans. More than eight in 10 (84 percent) of those who had heard about the recall said that they had talked about it with others. In addition, the data clearly indicate that the majority of consumers stopped eating spinach because of the recall.

"The recall met the main public health goal, which was to warn people not to eat spinach,” said William Hallman, director of the FPI. Fewer Americans, however, were aware of important details related to the recall, he said, and not everyone followed the advice of the FDA. “Many were confused about the types of spinach affected, where it was grown, the organism that caused the contamination, the symptoms of the resulting illness, and perhaps most significantly, whether or not the recall had ended,” Hallman said.

More than one-in-10 (13 percent) of those who ate spinach before the recall reported that they ate fresh spinach during the recall, and nearly three-quarters (74 percent) of them knew about the recall at the time. Some Americans went to the other extreme, generalizing the warnings about spinach to other similar foods. Nearly one-fifth (18 percent) of those aware of the recall said they stopped buying other bagged produce because of the spinach recall.

Hallman said that the survey provides data that can help improve communications about future food recalls. “It also enables us to explore how our systems might work in the case of intentional food contamination,” he said. The authors of the study include Cara L. Cuite, Sarah C. Condry, Mary L. Nucci and Hallman, all researchers at FPI. FPI is a research unit of Rutgers’ New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station. More information about the study can be found the institute’s website.

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A new standard for measuring doctoral programs

Rutgers–New Brunswick doctoral programs in six fields rank among the top 10 of U.S. institutions, while Ph.D. programs at Rutgers–Newark rank No.12 overall among small research universities, according to a new national index based on scholarly productivity published in the January 12 issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education.

The Faculty Scholarly Productivity Index, produced by American Analytics, ranked 166 large research universities (15 or more doctoral programs) as part of its inaugural evaluation of nearly 7,300 doctoral programs nationwide. The index incorporated such information as faculty publications, grants, and honors received by faculty to determine the quality of an institution’s doctoral programs.  

The New Brunswick campus ranked No. 2 in philosophy and religious studies, No. 2 in Spanish, No. 4 in women’s studies, No. 4 in atmospheric sciences, No. 8 in pharmaceutical sciences and medicinal chemistry, and No. 9 in marine biology and biological oceanography. The index also ranked 61 universities with fewer than 15 doctoral programs. Rutgers–Newark tied for 12th place with Clark University. Other universities ranked in the top 20 include DePaul, Bryn Mawr, San Diego State, and the College of William and Mary.   

The index, based on data from 2005, used a database of journal publication and citation data from more than 15,000 journals, as well as grant data from federal agencies. In evaluating faculty honors, it included awards such as the Nobel Prize and MacArthur Fellowships.

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Economist sees weak long-term job growth, rising unemployment and low inflation for New Jersey

After starting 2006 on pace to add more than 40,000 jobs, by year’s end New Jersey’s continuing economic slowdown produced only 34,600 jobs, a growth rate of less than 1 percent and a trend not likely to reverse itself any time soon.

Nancy Mantell, director of the Rutgers Economic Advisory Service (R/ECON), said at a conference last month that New Jersey’s 0.9 percent nonagricultural job growth lagged behind the nation’s 1.4 percent growth rate. She anticipated that the state’s job growth rate would dip to 0.6 percent in 2007 and would average 0.9 percent yearly through the 2016 forecast period.

She noted that since 1990, manufacturing employment in the state has declined at a rate of just over 3 percent annually, for a total loss of 200,000 jobs. Since 2000, the information industry has fared worse, losing jobs at an annual rate of more than 5 percent, or a total of 30,000 positions.

Mantell offered some good news for Garden Staters. She sees healthy growth in the high-paying finance and transportation industries, and also in the four service sectors (professional/business, educational/health/social, leisure/hospitality, and other).

                                       - Steve Manas

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New human resource management major approved for Camden business school

A bachelor’s degree-granting program in human resource management will be launched at the School of Business–Camden. The creation of this new major, which will award a bachelor of science degree, was approved by the Rutgers Board of Governors in October 2006. It is anticipated that students may enroll in the new major for the spring 2007 semester.

The human resource management major at Rutgers–Camden will provide students with a comprehensive background in the theory and practice of both the traditional and evolving aspects of the profession. Students will be prepared for a variety of careers related to the human and social capital that drives organizations.

In the metro Philadelphia region, only Temple University and Rutgers–Camden offer majors in human resources. The School of Business–Camden enrolls students in five upper-division undergraduate majors, as well as a master of business administration program designed for the working professional and offered in Camden, Mount Laurel, Voorhees, and Atlantic County.

- Michael Sepanic

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