The director of Career Services is faced with an ethical question on collaboration with a third party. She is approached with a deal to promote a product in exchange for funding for the center. Her team presents her with the pros and cons of accepting the deal.

Keywords: career center, alumnus, campus partnerships

Character Descriptions

Luke Calloway (He/Him): Prominent donor who is starting a coffee company. He is an alumnus of the elite business school at Harmony University.

Donna Apple (She/Her): Director of the Career Center at Harmony University. She has worked at the university for 15 years and has won many awards for the career center.

Tom Glass (He/Him): Director of Employer Relations at Harmony University for 3 years. He is pro collaborating with Luke Calloway.

Lucy Feathers (She/Her): Director of Career Development at Harmony University for 9 years. She is wary about collaborating with Luke Calloway.

Institutional Context

Harmony University is a large 4-year public institution in the southeast. It serves approximately 40,000 students, of which 70% are White, 16% are Black, 6% are Latino, 4% are bi- or multi-racial, 3% are Asian/Pacific Islander, and 1% are Native American/Alaska Native. There are 8,763 international students. Harmony is in a low socioeconomic area of the state, and around 25% of Harmony students are Pell Grant recipients. The school’s relationship with the community is strained, as Harmony requires many resources to stay running (financial, support of facilities and utilities, etc.), and many of the city’s longtime citizens believe those resources should be going to the community. Harmony University is the 2nd-ranked university in the state (although their Career Center is ranked #1) and is constantly competing with the other large public institution in the state. The college is known for its strong alumni network, and students from across the country apply to and attend Harmony University for a chance to find internships and jobs with past graduates.

Context and Case

Donna Apple arrives at the office at 8:00 am on Monday morning. Upon logging into her computer, she pulls up her notes to prepare for her 10:00 am meeting with Luke Calloway. She recognized the name when she was asked to meet with this donor a week ago and she knows he is a businessman in the area. His businesses include an ice cream company and a 4-star hotel. Students work at these businesses on the corporate and retail side. She also knows he has been highly successful and often visits the business college as an esteemed alumnus.

Upon arriving at the meeting in the career center’s conference room, she is surprised to see he has a presentation he wants to show her about his new product and how the career center can be involved in promoting it. Luke Calloway explains that he is creating a coffee company and wants to launch both the brand and product on campus and in the town. He is offering the career center $10,000 for career center events that serve his coffee and cover all expenses to install a coffee bar in the center. All coffee and products would be covered. In exchange, promotion of the product and signs will be around the coffee bar; no other coffee can be bought by the center. Donna Apple knows that $10,000 will be an immense help with a lot of events she wants to put on such as a networking night, resume building, and outreach projects to all the colleges at the university. She also sampled some of Luke’s coffee and liked the flavors and the quality. Donna and Luke Calloway come to a tentative agreement to meet again in a week after Donna has time to check with other constituents.

Donna Apple talks to her team of directors before meeting with her supervisor to pitch the idea. During the presentation to her team, she is met with two different perspectives. Some are excited about the collaboration because of the event money and see the free coffee as a bonus. Tom Glass reminds the team that the career center has a tight budget, and this would allow for more events than in the past. Funding also allows for more freedom and creativity with the events put on, which would hopefully raise engagement with the career center. Tom knows that is a goal of the career center, and he also wants to make an employer connection as the employer relations director. Tom thinks that Luke Calloway can also provide internships and jobs for students because of his many businesses. In building a relationship with Luke, he could also serve as a guest at career center events to offer job search and career advice.

However, Lucy Feathers is worried about the career center’s esteemed brand and image being affected by associating with another company. The image of the career center right now is the best it has been, much to the work of the center staff as a whole. The team has cultivated this image by slowly building connections with the community and connecting with students’ needs. Lucy also raises the concern of promoting and marketing the products to students. She states that the career center should remain an unsponsored entity. Donna knows that there is no official rule at University Harmony against 3rd party collaborations. Donna also knows that supporting one alumnus over others could be met with poor reception from their current employer network and the students. Donna sees both sides that Lucy and Tom are making and is torn about what to do. Donna Apples has a week before her next meeting with Luke.

Discussion Questions

1. If Donna accepted Luke’s deal and something went wrong with the company, what implications could that have for the career center and Harmony University?
2. Are there other ways of partnering that Donna could propose to Luke at their next meeting?
3. Is it ethical for the career center to promote and market for an outside company? Is it ethical to promote and support a specific alum?
4. What might collaboration between the Career Center and a third party look like? What limitations should be in place for such partnerships (if any)?
5. Tom and Lucy raised several benefits and concerns about a sponsorship from Luke. What are additional pros or cons to this sponsorship partnership?
6. How does the institutional context of Harmony University affect the case?

Author Biographies

Marion Andrews (She/Her) – Marion is a graduate assistant at Clemson’s Career Center. She is a 2nd-year graduate student in Clemson’s Student Affairs master’s program. She co-writes the Graduate College of Education Newsletter.

Celeste Kapalin (She/Her) – Celeste is a 2nd-year graduate student in Clemson’s Student Affairs master’s program and the graduate assistant for the College of Business Academic Advising Center. She is the VP of Socials for Clemson’s Student Personnel Association and a member of the Chi Sigma Alpha Beta Chapter honorary on campus.