Presidential candidate Donald Trump has continued to grab headlines in the past week, most recently for his call for a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on.” His comments have drawn strong reactions, including from opponents such as Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter, who said in an address to the media Tuesday, “We have no place for that kind of ignorance and tolerance and lack of understanding of what our country is about.”
Trump’s supporters, too, have also been quite vocal, and his popularity in the polls continues. In a national telephone poll conducted December 4th through 10th by the New York Times/CBS News, seven in 10 voters likely to vote in the Republican primary felt Trump was well equipped to respond to the threat of terrorism, with four in 10 saying they were “very confident” in his response. In this category, Trump led all other candidates, both Democratic and Republican.
Trump, a 1968 graduate of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, has also drawn reactions from his fellow alums, Nutter (WG ’79) among them. This week in Fridays from the Frontlines, we’re republishing an open letter about Trump to Wharton’s dean and vice dean from Victor Lee, a 2011 Wharton MBA graduate. In the letter, Lee, who is a former co-chair of the Wharton MBA Ethics Committee, takes issue with Trump’s statements, arguing that they violate the school’s ethics code.
The following post has been republished in its entirety from the Daily Pennsylvanian, where it originally ran on December 9th, with permission from its author. The views and opinions expressed are those of the author.
Dear Dean Geoffrey Garrett and Vice Dean Howard Kaufold,
In 2010-11, I had the honor of serving as a Co-Chair of the Wharton MBA Ethics Committee. I still remember vividly the standards to which we hold our students and community. To quote from the 2017 MBA Resource Guide, section 1D: “The Wharton community is committed to an environment free from discrimination and harassment of any kind.” Our Ethics Code was created “to develop a sense of individual responsibility on the part of each member of the Wharton community to participate actively in maintaining such standards, to foster an environment of honor and trust within the Wharton community, and to engender respect for the ethical standards of the Wharton graduate. Fulfilling this mission is a collective responsibility of the members of the Wharton community.”
As an alumnus, I consider myself very much still part of the Wharton community and am proud to have had the opportunity to study at our elite school. There is another alumnus who has proudly – and loudly – proclaimed his affiliation with Wharton time and time again: Donald Trump. In efforts to suggest his intellectual prowess, Mr. Trump has repeatedly seized upon the prestige of the Wharton brand. In doing so, however, he only reaffirms his obligation to uphold the ethical standards we expect from all members of the Wharton community.
Mr. Trump has prominently, and quite publicly, failed our community.
He has repeatedly made a mockery of our ethics code and the values Wharton holds dear. Most recently and arguably most disturbingly, on Dec. 7, Mr. Trump called for a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States” – presumptively as a measure to inhibit terrorists from entering the United States. In this statement and others, Mr. Trump assigned malicious intent to a whole class of people. This is the very essence of discrimination. It is a violation of the Wharton principle to “respect the individual rights of others.”
Mr. Trump has forfeited his right to be a member of our Wharton community.
It is not enough for Wharton to stand silent in the face of such remarks by a former son of the school. How can we set an example for our current, future (and even former) students if we allow such statements to go unanswered with the requisite opprobrium?
I respectfully call upon both of you fine gentlemen, as leaders of our august school and protectors of the Wharton brand, to lead the public disownment of Donald Trump as a member of the Wharton family. We at Wharton seek to raise ethical leaders; we cannot sit idly by but must proactively and publicly denounce Mr. Trump’s statement and the philosophy that engenders his invective. It is our moral obligation.
If we are to be a global leader, it is time for us – for Wharton – to send a clear message to the world. Enough is enough.
With respect and concern,
Victor M. Lee, WG ‘11
