Honor & Integrity at Smeal

Integrity matters at the Penn State Smeal College of Business. It stands as a fundamental part of our culture and permeates what we do as a leading business school both in and out of our classrooms.

The Smeal College of Business community is committed to an Honor Code that says, “We, the Smeal College of Business community, aspire to the highest ethical standards and will hold each other accountable to them. We will not engage in any action that is improper or that creates the appearance of impropriety in our academic lives, and we intend to hold to this standard in our future careers.” We also aspire to cultivate ethical leadership by challenging each other to strive for greatness while demanding that our successes come only from fair and ethical means. We invite all those who engage with the Smeal College of Business community to join in our efforts.

Be a part of our culture. Sign the Honor Code online here.

Message from the Dean

Dear Smeal Community,

One of our primary goals in the Smeal College of Business is to prepare our students to enter the workplace with the utmost standards of integrity. In fact, we have made an explicit strategic commitment to integrity and ethical behavior in our current strategic plan.

With the leadership of the Honor and Integrity Director along with all members of our community, we aim to promote the evolution of our culture of integrity from awareness to accountability.

Smeal’s commitment to integrity and ethical behavior is a community-wide effort. We encourage students, faculty, and staff to speak up when they see something that doesn’t feel right, to hold each other accountable, and to always act with integrity in everything that they do. In addition, we encourage alumni and recruiters to lead by example and represent Smeal positively in their professional lives.

The Smeal Honor Code is one initiative of our commitment to integrity and ethical behavior. In 2006, Penn State Smeal MBA students drafted a college-wide honor code as a way to empower the Smeal community to actively support a culture of integrity.

Smeal Honor Code

We, the Smeal College of Business Community,
aspire to the highest ethical standards
and will hold each other accountable to them.
We will not engage in any action that is improper
or that creates the appearance of impropriety in our academic lives,
and we intend to hold to this standard in our future careers.

Each semester, we hold a signing of the Honor Code for students, faculty, staff, and administrators to commit—or reaffirm their commitment—to the code. This is just one of many ways to get involved with integrity initiatives around the college. I encourage you to find a way to get involved that fits your roles and responsibilities in the college.

It is my hope that our commitment to integrity and ethical behavior continues to evolve among our entire community, and that each new student and employee embraces that commitment in a way that reinforces the reputation of our college and our University.

Best regards,

Charles H. Whiteman
Dean