Answer Happy

Analyze this case study using the Utilitarianism ethical theory.
Provide a paragraph that accurately describes the theory. Make sure
you describe the case study before you apply the theory. Avoid
using phrases like: “In my opinion,” “I believe,” “Ethics is
difficult and not certain, so it is hard to tell if this ethical
theory is right or not.”
MINIMUM WORDS: 500
CASE 2.1 Hacking into Harvard Everyone who has ever applied for admission to a applicant-specific URL to get to the supposedly re- selective college or who has been interviewed for a stricted page containing the verdict on one's appli- highly desired job knows the feeling of waiting im- cation. In the nine hours it took Apply Yourself patiently to learn the result of one's application. So programmers to patch the security flaw after it was it's not hard to identify with those applicants to posted, curiosity got the better of about two hun- some of the nation's most prestigious MBA pro- dred applicants who couldn't resist the temptation grams who thought they had a chance to get an early to discover whether they had been admitted 30 glimpse at whether their ambition was to be ful- Many of them got only blank screens. But a few filled. While visiting a Business Week Online mes- learned that they had been tentatively accepted or sage board, they found instructions, posted by an tentatively rejected. What they didn't count on, anonymous hacker, explaining how to find out what however, were two things: first, that it wouldn't take admission decision the business schools had made the business schools long to learn what had hap- in their case. Doing so wasn't hard. The universities pened and who had done it and, second, that the in question--Harvard, Dartmouth, Duke, Caregie schools in question were going to be very unhappy Mellon, MIT, and Stanford-use the same applica- about it. Harvard was perhaps the most outspoken. tion software from Apply Yourself, Inc. Essentially, Kim B. Clark, dean of the business school, said, all one had to do was change the very end of the "This behavior is unethical at best-a serious
breach of trust that cannot be countered by ratio- terest in corporate social responsibility, business nalization." In a similar vein, Steve Nelson, the ex- writers and other media commentators warmly wel- ecutive director of Harvard's MBA program, stated, comed Havard's decisive response. But soon there "Hacking into a system in this manner is unethical was some sniping at the decision by those claiming and also contrary to the behavior we expect of lead- that Harvard and the other business schools had ers we aspire to develop." overreacted. Although 70 percent of Harvard's It didn't take Harvard long to make up its mind MBA students approved the decision, the under- what to do about it. It rejected all 119 applicants who graduate student newspaper, The Crimson, was had attempted to access the information. In an offi skeptical. "HBS [Harvard Business School] has cial statement, Dean Clark wrote that the mission of scored a media victory with its hard-line stance," it the Harvard Business School is to educate princi- said in an editorial. "Americans have been looking pled leaders who make a difference in the world. To for a sign from the business community, particularly achieve that, a person must have many skills and its leading educational institutions, that business qualities, including the highest standards of integrity, ethics are a priority, HBS's false bravado has given sound judgment and a strong moral compass-an them one, leaving 119 victims in angry hands." intuitive sense of what is right and wrong. Those As some crities pointed out, Harvard's stance who have hacked into this web site have failed to overlooked the possibility that the hacker might pass that test." Carnegie Mellon and MIT quickly have been a spouse or a parent who had access to followed suit. By rejecting the ethically challenged, the applicant's password and personal identifica- said Richard L. Schmalensee, dean of MIT'S Sloan tion number. In fact, one applicant said that this School of Management, the schools are trying to had happened to him. His wife found the instruc- "send a message to society as a whole that we are at- tions at Business Week Online and tried to check on tempting to produce people that when they go out the success of his application. "I'm really distraught into the world, they will behave ethically." over this," he said. "My wife is tearing her hair out." Duke and Dartmouth, where only a handful of To this, Harvard's Dean Clark responds, "We ex- students gained access to their files, said they would pect applicants to be personally responsible for the take a case-by-case approach and didn't publicly an access to the website, and for the identification and nounce their individualized determinations. But, passwords they receive." given the competition for places in their MBA pro- Critics also reject the idea that the offending ap- grams, it's a safe bet that few, if any, offending ap- plicants were "hackers." After all, they used their own plicants were sitting in classrooms the following personal identification and passwords to log on legiti- semester. Forty-two applicants attempted to learn mately; all they did was to modify the URL to go to a their results early at Stanford, which took a differ different page. They couldn't change anything in ent tack. It invited the accused hackers to explain their files or view anyone else's information. In themselves in writing. "In the best case, what has fact, some critics blamed the business schools and been demonstrated here is a lack of judgment; in AppyYourself more than they did the applicants. If the worst case, a lack of integrity," said Derrick those pages were supposed to be restricted, then it Bolton, Stanford's director of MBA admissions. shouldn't have been so easy to find one's way to them. "One of the things we try to teach at business In an interview, one of the Harvard applicants schools is making good decisions and taking respon said that although he now sees that what he did was sibility for your actions." Six weeks later, however, wrong, he wasn't thinking about that at the time- the dean of Stanford Business School, Robert Joss, he just followed the hacker's posted instructions reported, "None of those who gained unauthorized out of curiosity. He didn't consider what he did to access was able to explain his or her actions to our be "hacking," because any novice could have done satisfaction." He added that he hoped the applicants the same thing, "I'm not an IT person by any stretch of the imagination." he said. “I'm not even ilan for their amerience
lapse in judgment," he said. "I pointed out that I ered it a moral decision? If so, on what basis wasn't trying to harm anyone and wasn't trying to would you have made it? get an advantage over anyone." Another applicant 2. Assess the morality of what the curious appli- said that he knew he had made a poor judgment cants did from the point of view of egoism, but he was offended by having his ethics called into utilitarianism, Kant's ethics, Ross's pluralism, question. "I had no idea that they would have con- sidered this a big deal.” And some of those posting 3. In your view, was it wrong for the MBA appli- and rule utilitarianism messages at Business Week Online and other MBA- related sites believe the offending applicants cants to take an unauthorized peak at their ap- should be applauded. “Exploiting weaknesses is plication files? Explain why or why not. When what good business is all about. Why would they considering whether it was morally permissible for them to do what they did, what obligations, ding you wrote one anonymous poster. Richard L. Schmalensee, dean of MIT's Sloan ideals, and effects should the applicants have School of Management, however, defends Harvard considered? Do you think, as some have sug- and MIT's automatically rejecting everyone who gested that there is a generation gap on this issue? peeked "because it wasn't an impulsive mistake." The instructions are reasonably elaborate," he said. 4. Did Harvard and MIT overreact, or was it nec- "You didn't need a degree in computer science, but essary for them to respond as they did in order this clearly involved effort. You couldn't do this ca- to send a strong message about the importance sually without knowing that you were doing some- of ethics? If you were a business-school admis- thing wrong. We've always taken ethics seriously, sions official, how would you have handled this and this is a serious matter." To those applicants situation? who say that they didn't do any harm, Schmalensee 5. Assess the argument that the applicants who replies, "Is there nothing wrong with going through snooped were just engaging in the type of bold files just because you can?" and aggressive behavior that makes for business To him and others, seeking unauthorized access success. In your view, are these applicants likely to restricted pages is as wrong as snooping through to make good business leaders? What about the your boss's desk to see whether you've been recom- argument that it's really the fault of the universi- mended for a raise. Some commentators, however, ties for not having more secure procedures, not suggest there may be a generation gap here. Stu- the applicants who took advantage of that fact? dents who grew up with the Internet, they say, tend 6. One of the applicants admits that he used poor to see it as wide open territory and don't view this judgment but believes that his ethics should level of Web snooping as indicating a character not be questioned. What do you think he flaw. means? If he exercised poor judgment on a question of right and wrong, isn't that a matter of his ethics? Stanford's Derrick Bolton distin- Discussion Questions guishes between a lapse of judgment and a lack 1. Suppose that you had been one of the MBA of integrity. What do you see as the difference? applicants who stumbled across an opportunity Based on this episode, what if, anything, can to learn your results early. What would you we say about the ethics and the character of have done, and why? Would you have consid- the curious applicants?