In many organizations, especially those that are supposed to be dealing with good working relationships among people, there are always some decisions that are supposed to be made, and in most times, these decisions are difficult to make. This is because, in one time or the other, these decisions will be required to hurt both parties involved. As a result, the person who is making these decisions must choose to either be moral or immoral. According to the chronicles of higher education, there has been a reported case of death of a football player at the University of Maryland at college park. This has gain popularity after it started being investigated by ESPN. However, most people are asking themselves why this matter gained importance after ESPN was investigating it. This is because, the matter once reported but after some time, it faded away.
This scandal has left the president of the university n a situation where most people would say that he is fighting for his position in the university. This is because, Walsh, the chair of the university’s senate is getting pressure from other people, the fans, media among many other to terminate Loh, the university president for the accusations that he did not do enough to prevent the death of this player.
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At the same time, there has been the concern that he, Loh, has done a good job once he came to this university. This is because, it has been reported that he has helped in more than three thousand new enrolments, increasing graduation rates and also making the performance of mathematics SAT for the incoming freshmen be higher. As a result, the president states that his job is to lead the institutions and address small and big issues as they occur.
This matter has gained the attention of Professor Juan. This is because he states that he is not sure of how to talk to students about the death of this player, McNair. He states that to some extent, he has lost sleep wondering the same thing. The question in most people minds is why the investigation of the matter only began after the exposure by ESPN. This brings in an issue of an ethical dilemma on the side of the university’s Senate on whether to terminate the president or not.
Important information about the dilemma
There are various facts that are evident in this scandal. These are facts that bring in an ethical dilemma and makes the decision to be made a difficult one. To begin with, it is evident that the scandal of the death of McNair has gained public attention and popularity. This is because it has come to a place where it has started being exposed by the ESPN. Once a case has gained public attention in the United States, it becomes very difficult to dismiss it. This is because various people are investigating the issue. Similarly, we find that the press has started storming in offices demanding answers about the same.
Moreover, it is evident that the president is trying to show that whatever happened was not in his hands. This is because he says that his work is to lead the university. Even though such cases are common in athletic teams, it is also evident that there is poor or lack of oversight at the athletics team.
Less we forget, Walsh puts it clear that the problem at hand is not the administration’s problem, but it is related to lack of oversight of the athletics department. This might sound like a cover-up to make sure that the good deeds that are evident since Loh became the president of this university are also put into consideration. It has been put that around three thousand students have enrolled ever since he took office, improved six-year graduation rates and made the grade point of freshmen joining the university to be higher in the year 2017 than in the year 2010. Were it not for the improvements that have been seen ever since he took office, there would be no reason for the senate chair, Professor Walsh having his back, the people’s demand would have been executed immediately and he would have been terminated off duty.
In either case, terminating him or not, both parties would have much to lose. If he is terminated, the success of the university would seem to drop, and if he is not, then it would mean that the death of the player would go unpunished. Though it was not the mistakes of the president or the athletics director that resulted in the death of this player, their main mistake is lacking proper oversight of the situation. For this reason, there calls for a decision that would produce the least disadvantages to both the affected parties, in this case, the diseased player together with the public and also the university.
Dilemmas and options.
Option one- terminating Loh.
Justice delayed is justice denied, is a common phrase from the business law. In this case, the investigations already had stopped. This makes the situation to fit perfectly in the phrase. The affected person’s justice was delayed. In my opinion, the president and the athletics director should have been called off duty immediately the scandal was noted.
Terminating the president would have been seen as the best decision in favor of McNair and the public. However, the Senate led by their chair Prof Walsh do not think the same thing. When all cards are flip, terminating his job would only produce good results on the side of the diseased. However, some of the good results that the president had brought to the university would be lost. This makes it look like the worst decision to be made. This is because the Senate also wants the success of the school
Firing the president would mean that the number of enrolments that he has helped would drop, the mean grade of freshmen might drop to where it was before he joined the university and also the graduation rates would drop. This is what the Senate is trying to avoid. If it were according to them, then the enrolments would increase together with the graduation rates. This will lead to the university being ranked higher than many others, many investors storming in and in turn more money and reputation. Moreover, McNair’s father in support of the continuation of the good work that the president is doing.
Option two- doing nothing
The Senate has the power to do nothing about the situation. This is because they are responsible for all the decisions that are to be made in any institution. This case of this death is seen as an accident, and hence it cannot be termed as murder. In this case, there are no legal regulations that demand the termination of his duty. Apart from the public involvement, in this case, no other party demands him being terminated or fired. This is evident in that even the father of the diseased person does not press charges or even seem to demand any action being taken on the president or the director athletics.
However, even if this is possible, if the president is to go free, most people would have the speculations that there is something that happened and the president was not punished for it. The public and the diseased would be in a situation where they would say that justice was not done. The students would also be involved in this. We find Prof Juan wondering how to talk to the students about the same thing as he says that it would look like a form of incitement.
In this case, if the Senate decides to keep quiet about the matter, then the school might or might not lose much. This is because the success of the school would still go on. This is because the work of the president, which is leading the school, would continue and therefore the trend will continue. However, to some extent, some of the public that will feel that justice was not carried out are the same people who would have wished to enroll in that school or parents who would have wished their children enrolled in those school. When these people feel that the Senate was not just, then they would refrain as much as possible from taking their children to that school. As a result, the graduation rates would go down, and the mean grade of freshmen drop. This is the same thing that the Senate would be trying to avoid. Finally, the rights of the players would not have been put into consideration. This is because the work of oversight was not properly done and thus led to the death of a student.
Option three- suspension
In any ethical dilemma case, the best decision is the one that makes sure justice is done and at the same time, minimum disadvantages realized by both parties. In this case, the decision to be made should be one that the school will not lose as much, and at the same time, the affected public will feel that justice was done.
If the president was suspended, the news would reach every corner of the world that the president of the University of Maryland has been suspended due to the poor oversight in his school that led to the death of a nineteen-year-old football player. When this information goes out there, the school administration that is responsible for the oversight of other high management officials, in this case, the Senate will be congratulated for the good work they have done. This suspension will result in a slight drop in the enrollment per semester, which would, in turn, affect the graduation rate in that year. However, the president will get back to work eventually, and the performance will eventually get back to its original nature.
On the side of the public, they would have wanted so much for the president to be terminated. Suspending him is not what they wanted. But it is justice for them as well. It is not much as they wanted, but it is good. This way, all the parties get justice to a small level and also gets some disadvantages to small levels.
Parties affected by the options
This whole scandal involves two parties. The offensive and the offended. In this case, anything to deal with the school is on the offensive side, and anything on the public is on the offended side. In these two parties, there are the other parties within these distinct groups. For instance, when it comes to the school side, there are the students, management, teaching staff, other staff members, the Senate, the president and many others. On the side of the offended, there is the diseased who in this case is represented by other people, the public, the fans of the school, the parent to the dead and less forgetting the competitors of the school.
The options may directly affect some parties and others are affected indirectly. The same way, some parties are affected more than the other parties. These are because some will lose too much that how the others will lose. To begin with, the university will be the one affected by the options completely, regardless of which option will be decided by the Senate, the university will be impacted either positively or negatively. The drop in the number of new students enrolling in the university will drop and in turn drop the rate of graduates. Similarly, the president of the university will also be affected in a way that all the decisions to be made will be to either punish him for not having proper oversight of the athletics team or not.
The public is equally affected by the options in the same way the president of the school will be affected. This is in the sense that any decision that will be taken will be to impress the public or to impress the president. Moreover, various decisions of the public will be affected. McNair’s father will also be among the affected parties together with the football fans. Some fans knew McNair as their best player, and if the school did nothing to honor his death, then the fans will be in a great loss. And like we are all sure of, nothing is hurting like a football fan who lost their player. These are just some of the parties that will be affected by the decisions.
How each party will be affected
The parties we have seen above are some of the affected parties by any of the options to be taken. The overall effect lies on the side of the school. This is because they are in a probable situation of losing their good reputations and also the success going down.
The university- this is the main body that is in the likelihood of losing so much. Like we have seen in this essay, terminating the president and also not punishing him could bring out similar results, which are losing a large number of students. This is in a way that the number of enrollment might drop and thus the rate of graduates will eventually drop.
The president- this is the main character in this scandal. Him being the leader of the university, he was supposed to have interceded and came clean of the issue. However, he did not do any of that. This is why other parties came in and conducted the investigations. If any of the options are taken, the president will feel the hitch more than anybody else in his case. He is also in a condition where he could be fighting for his job.
The Senate- this is given the mandate to take any decision. Be it firing or suspending the president. This is the party that is being pressured by the public to take action. All the eyes of the press and also the public not forgetting the students are at looking at the Senate and demanding for answers. Anything that happens to the university is equally felt by the Senate.
The public- this is the opposing side to the university. They are trying to make sure that justice is done right by the player who died. The options discussed above will be in a way that the public will also be affected. Among other parties that will be affected include the players, McNair’s father, the students, the professors among many others.
In a nutshell, the Senate of the University of Maryland is faced with an ethical dilemma on whether to punish their president following public demand on issues raised regarding the death of one football player in the university. The Senate and the president put it that the only mistake that happened was that there was poor oversight of the matter. However, the public, being led by the media are demanding and raising concerns that the president should be terminated. The Senate is left to wonder the ethical way to handle the situation. This is because the president has brought some very important success to the university.
