Yesterday the New York Times reported that thirty-four first-year business graduate students at Duke University cheated on a take-home final exam. The university is still reeling over a highly publicized case of a rape allegation involving its lacrosse team last year that has just been dismissed, and the last thing they would need is more high profile problems. It would have been easy to simply brush these violations under the rug or deal with them in a less open forum. They could have easily rationalized such an action since a recent study by Rutgers University reported that some fifty-six percent of all business graduate students in the United States have admitted to cheating.

But Duke University believed that it is important to emphasize honesty and ethical behavior, because those qualities are essential for success in the business world. It might give the school a black eye temporarily, but it speaks volumes for the standards that they are setting for their students.
We learn that a leader is judged not only by what he says, but by what he does. In this case, we can judge a business school as not just talking about the importance of values - but living them.