By Anthony Howard
Jackson State University’s College of Business welcomed bestselling author Cynthia Cooper to speak with students about ethics in the business realm. Cooper addressed the members of the recently chartered 53rd chapter of the Student Center for Public Trust (StudentCPT), culminating the organization’s first academic year at the institution.
“In the classroom, students learn the theoretical side about ethical decision making aspects that may seem abstract, but having high-profile speakers like Cynthia Cooper shows our students a real life situation where ethical decisions had to be made,”said Saundra Thompson McFarland, J.D., associate professor of business law, who serves as the StudentCPT advisor.
Cooper revisited her time at WorldCom leading up to the 2002 accounting scandal. She shared her experience on how her decision to maintain her morals and ethics ultimately changed her life. Her contributions in revealing one of the largest corporate frauds in history landed her the title of a Time magazine’s Persons of the Year in 2002.
Cooper is an accountant and was the vice president of internal audit at WorldCom. She and her team uncovered over $3.8 billion of fraudulent balance sheet entries. The company was forced to admit overstating its assets by over $11 billion and eventually went bankrupt.
“I want to share my story, especially the lessons, because I believe there is a lot of value in hearing real life experiences,” Cooper shared. “I like for students to think about what decisions they would make if they were in those shoes.”
Cooper said traveling across the country and sharing her experiences has been both healing and a way to encourage the next generation of business professionals. Over the last 20 years she’s spoken at several colleges and universities, however, Jackson State was her first time speaking at a HBCU.
“In the College of Business, we seek to produce ethical and technologically advanced students and that’s why we set up the StudentCPT and such events allow us to fulfill our mission of building ethical business leaders,” explained Fidelis Ikem, Ph.D., dean of the College of Business.
The College of Businesses students had the opportunity to engage in thought provoking conversations with Cooper and ask questions about how she navigated life before and after becoming a whistleblower. Junior accounting major Jordyn Hill took away some meaningful advice from the exchange.
“Something she said that stuck out to me was to cultivate courage and to reform resilience,” said Hill. “Courage and resilience are important when it comes to speaking up when you see something is wrong.”
After her speaking event, Cooper returned to give the students, faculty, and staff an autographed copy of her book “Extraordinary Circumstances: The Journey of a Corporate Whistleblower.”
