Around the Dell
Technology teaching grant
Lynchburg College received a $20,000 grant fromthe Verizon Foundation through a programof the Virginia Foundation for Inde- pendent Colleges for enhanced use of technology in K-12 educa- tion. LC is using its grant to en- hance technology training for education faculty using Verizon’s educators’ website “Thinkfinity” and to enhance technology train- ing within existing education courses. The grant also supported two one-week technology courses for in-service teachers: “Effective ClassroomTechnologies” taught by Dr.WoodyMcKenzie, associ- ate professor of education and human development, and “Ap- plied Geography” taught by Dr. David Perault, associate profes- sor of environmental science.
The Big Read
LC’s Knight Capron Library teamed up with Amazement Square, a local children’smuseum, to offer a number of literary events sur- rounding TheMaltese Falcon, the book by Dashiell Hammett chosen for Lynchburg’s Big Read program. Julie Rivett, granddaughter of the author, spoke at the College about themany facets of TheMaltese Falcon.Working with Hammett scholar Richard Layman, she helped edit two Edgar Award nominated books—Selected Let- ters of Dashiell Hammett 1921-1960 and hermother’s memoir, Dashiell Hammett: A Daughter Remembers. Other Big Read events held at LC included a book ex- change, book discussion, andmurdermystery the- ater featuringmembers of Alpha Psi Omega, the Col- lege’s theatre honor society.
The collapse of Enron
Shortly after SherronWatkins went to work for Andrew Fas- tow in Enron’s newmergers and acquisitions group in late June 2001, she suspected some- thing was very wrong with the accounting practices.When Jeff Skilling quit for no good reason, she was sure. Watkins, named Timemaga-
zine’s Person of the Year in 2002 along with two other fe- male whistleblowers, gave her audience an inside glimpse of the culture of corporate greed that led to the fall of Enron in the Richard P.Gifford Lecture Series on business and ethics sponsored by the School of Business and Economics. Her talk, “The Lessons of
Enron: The Importance of Ethical Leadership,” outlined the prerequisites that lead to misconduct: pressure to gen- erate profit; opportunity to game the system; and an ability to rationalize what is being done. Enron execu-
tives set up four
fraudulent structures tomask the company’s losses. “This really was a time bomb waiting to ex- plode,” she said.Watkins took her case to ceo Kenneth Lay, who “did a whitewash investi- gation.” Six weeks later, Enron was bankrupt. Before its bankruptcy in late
2001, Enron was one of the world’s leading electricity, natu- ral gas, pulp and paper, and communications companies. The scandal brought into ques- tion the accounting practices of many u.s. corporations and was a factor in the creation of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. WhileWatkins never blew
the whistle publicly on Enron, she later testified before con- gressional committees investi- gating Enron’s demise. She also co-authored Power Failure:The Inside Story of the Collapse of Enron. As a vice president in the
company,Watkins was not im- mune to the power ofmoney. While earning about $150,000 a year, she once received an ad-
ditional $175,000 bonus. Easy to think, “I love this company,” she said. Enron’s board of di- rectors was alsomaking twice the going rate of large corpora- tions—$300,000 a year.That made it easier for boardmem- bers to sign off on Skilling’s scheme, she said. Watkins said similar corrup-
tion will continue as long as compensation packages are out of control. She said the current tax law, which taxes companies at the corporate tax rate of 30 to 40 percent on executive pay exceeding $1million, has fueled the problem. Companies get around it by awarding bonuses and stock options, which they can deduct as a pre-tax expense. Watkins said she likes the idea of not giving stock options to top corporate executives. She admonished students to
stay ethical in their business dealings by remembering the three “m”s: would you want yourmentor, themedia, or yourmomto find out?
285 attendees at the Beard Center’sAnnual Conference onAging | 289events open to the public in 6 LC MAGAZINE Fall 2010
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