Rutgers Ethics Initiative Launched to Encourage Government Reform

Prudential Business Ethics Center at Rutgers Business SchoolNewark announces a nonpartisan initiative

to encourage New Jersey governmental ethics reform.

Survey results shows that residents look to citizen groups and the governor to raise ethical standards and combat political corruption.

NEWARK The Prudential Business Ethics Center at Rutgers Business SchoolNewark and New Brunswick, has announced the findings of a survey conducted as part of the Rutgers Ethics Initiative, a non-partisan project to encourage cooperation between business and government to promote ethics in New Jersey.

The Rutgers Ethics Initiative is sponsored by the Center with major support from the Rutgers University Academic Excellence Fund.

Led by principal investigator Barrie Peterson and advised by Faculty Fellow Wayne Eastman, the survey included a New Jersey Omnibus Poll of 809 New Jersey citizens, conducted by the Eagleton Center for Public Interest Polling at the Eagleton Institute of Politics, preliminary results of which have just been released.

The poll findings indicate that New Jersey residents view citizens groups as having the greatest potential for raising ethical standards to combat political corruption, with 26% of the respondents looking to citizens groups, followed by the governor (20%), state and federal prosecutors (17%) and the State Legislature (12%). Business leaders were at the bottom of the list (6%).

It also shows that the public is evenly divided over whether to empower one state agency to enforce ethics rules for state and local officials and employees (37%), or to maintain the current system of local governments policing their own elected officials and employees (36%).

The Rutgers Ethics Initiative was kicked off in March 2006 with a program featuring keynote speaker Paula A. Franzese, Esq., Chair of the New Jersey State Ethics Commission, which has begun training State employees, cracking down on conflicts of interest and receiving financial disclosure reports from state and public authority leaders.

In addition, the project has focused on gathering input formally from the public, private and government sectors through interviews with 48 New Jersey leaders as well as a focus group with leaders of seven citizen advocacy groups.

Said Rosa Oppenheim, Acting Dean of Rutgers Business SchoolNewark and New Brunswick, We at Rutgers are tremendously pleased to be associated with this important initiative, which will support the work that the State Ethics Commission has begun and effect significant, positive changes in the way business and government is conducted in New Jersey. We are very grateful to Prudential and the Prudential Foundation for its generous, continuing support of the Prudential Business Ethics Center, which makes projects such as the Rutgers Ethics Initiative possible.

A comprehensive report of the Rutgers Ethics Initiatives findings and recommendations for action is expected to be released in January 2007, after being reviewed by a distinguished group of public policy experts including Stephanie Bush-Baskette , Executive Director of the Cornwall Center for Metropolitan Studies at RutgersNewark; Paula A. Franzese, Esq., Chair of the New Jersey State Ethics Commission and Peter W. Rodino Professor of Law at Seton Hall University; attorney Michael M. Horn, a partner with McCarter and English; Joseph R. Marbach, Ph.D., Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Seton Hall University and an expert on New Jersey politics; Mark Magyar, Editor and Publisher of New Jersey Reporter, a journal on public policy issues; historian and lawyer Gregory Mark, Professor of Law and Justice and Nathan L. Jacobs Scholar at Rutgers School of Law, Newark; State Senator Robert Martin, Ed.D.; Shelley Jacobs Mintz, Executive Director for the Partnership for New Jersey and Leadership New Jersey; Ingrid W. Reed, director of the Eagleton New Jersey Project, which includes projects on campaign and election activity, women and politics, welfare reform and governance issues; Michael P. Riccards, Executive Director of Hall Institute of Public Policy in Trenton; Murray Sabrin, Ph.D., Professor of Finance in the Anisfield School of Business and Executive Director of the Center for Business and Public Policy at Ramapo College of New Jersey; and former State Assemblyman Pat Schuber, a senior lecturer at Fairleigh Dickinson Universitys School of Administrative Science, Petrocelli College.

A summary of the Rutgers Ethics Initiative poll results, including cross-tabulation and differential analysis, is available on the Rutgers Business SchoolNewark and New Brunswick website, RBS(click on Faculty & Research, then Academic Centers, then Prudential Business Ethics Center) or ethics.

A webcast of the entire March 31 program Partnering Between the Public and Private Sector for Good Government: Can We Restore Trust by Ethics Reform? is also available online.

For additional information about the Rutgers Ethics Initiative, or to request a free speaker on the subject, contact Barrie Peterson at 973-353-5987.

The Prudential Business Ethics Center at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey

Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, has taken a leadership role in promoting the value of ethics in todays business world. The Prudential Business Ethics Center at Rutgers is funded by the Prudential Foundation and staffed by faculty of the Rutgers Business SchoolNewark and New Brunswick. The centers mission is to help create social as well as financial capital for the business and professional communities of New Jersey and beyond. Its programs have been designed to contribute to the theory and practice of ethics in business and the professions. The Prudential Business Ethics Center at Rutgers supports the teaching of business ethics to students as well as to corporate audiences, and it provides visible leadership that will raise issues and inspire a broader community.