Hiring Practices And Ethical Responsibility

by | Jun 29, 2023 | Economics

On December 12, 2022, the University of Texas’ men’s basketball coach, Chris Beard, was arrested on a family violence (i.e., felony) charge. On the same day, Coach Beard was suspended without pay by the University of Texas’ executive administrators. In a released statement, the University of Texas’ officials indicated “The university takes matters of interpersonal violence involving members of its community seriously.”

On December 23, 2022, Beard’s fiancée and alleged victim, Randi Trew, disputed the December 12th incident. “Chris did not strangle me, and I told that to law enforcement that evening. Chris has stated that he was acting in self-defense, and I do not refute that. I do not believe Chris was trying to intentionally harm me in any way.”

While an on-going investigation into this incident was being conducted by the Travis County (Texas) District Attorney’s office, on January 5, 2023, the University of Texas’ executive administrators fired Chris Beard and relieved him of the men’s basketball coaching responsibilities. Beard’s seven-year guaranteed contract with the University of Texas had five years remaining. Interestingly, Beard’s contract included a clause where he could be terminated for cause if he was charged with a felony. The University of Texas’ vice president of legal affairs, Jim Davis, informed Beard’s attorney, Perry Minton, that Beard demonstrated “unacceptable behavior that makes him unfit to serve as head coach at our university.”

On February 15, 2023, Chris Beard’s felony domestic violence case was dismissed, in part because of the alleged victim’s wishes not to prosecute. The Travis County (Texas) District Attorney’s “office determined the charges could not be proved beyond a reasonable doubt.”

On March 13, 2023, the University of Mississippi hired Chris Beard as their men’s head basketball coach.

 

Questions to be answered for Discussion:

Please share your thoughts on the University of Texas’ firing of Chris Beard.
Was terminating Chris Beard an ethically sound decision for the University of Texas?
Also, please share your thoughts on the University of Mississippi’s hiring Chris Beard as their men’s basketball coach.
Was hiring Chris Beard an ethically sound decision for the University of Mississippi?
Aprox 200 words with 2 sources to back up opinion.

Sample solution

Dante Alighieri played a critical role in the literature world through his poem Divine Comedy that was written in the 14th century. The poem contains Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. The Inferno is a description of the nine circles of torment that are found on the earth. It depicts the realms of the people that have gone against the spiritual values and who, instead, have chosen bestial appetite, violence, or fraud and malice. The nine circles of hell are limbo, lust, gluttony, greed and wrath. Others are heresy, violence, fraud, and treachery. The purpose of this paper is to examine the Dante’s Inferno in the perspective of its portrayal of God’s image and the justification of hell. 

In this epic poem, God is portrayed as a super being guilty of multiple weaknesses including being egotistic, unjust, and hypocritical. Dante, in this poem, depicts God as being more human than divine by challenging God’s omnipotence. Additionally, the manner in which Dante describes Hell is in full contradiction to the morals of God as written in the Bible. When god arranges Hell to flatter Himself, He commits egotism, a sin that is common among human beings (Cheney, 2016). The weakness is depicted in Limbo and on the Gate of Hell where, for instance, God sends those who do not worship Him to Hell. This implies that failure to worship Him is a sin.


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God is also depicted as lacking justice in His actions thus removing the godly image. The injustice is portrayed by the manner in which the sodomites and opportunists are treated. The opportunists are subjected to banner chasing in their lives after death followed by being stung by insects and maggots. They are known to having done neither good nor bad during their lifetimes and, therefore, justice could have demanded that they be granted a neutral punishment having lived a neutral life. The sodomites are also punished unfairly by God when Brunetto Lattini is condemned to hell despite being a good leader (Babor, T. F., McGovern, T., & Robaina, K. (2017). While he commited sodomy, God chooses to ignore all the other good deeds that Brunetto did.

Finally, God is also portrayed as being hypocritical in His actions, a sin that further diminishes His godliness and makes Him more human. A case in point is when God condemns the sin of egotism and goes ahead to commit it repeatedly. Proverbs 29:23 states that “arrogance will bring your downfall, but if you are humble, you will be respected.” When Slattery condemns Dante’s human state as being weak, doubtful, and limited, he is proving God’s hypocrisy because He is also human (Verdicchio, 2015). The actions of God in Hell as portrayed by Dante are inconsistent with the Biblical literature. Both Dante and God are prone to making mistakes, something common among human beings thus making God more human.

To wrap it up, Dante portrays God is more human since He commits the same sins that humans commit: egotism, hypocrisy, and injustice. Hell is justified as being a destination for victims of the mistakes committed by God. The Hell is presented as being a totally different place as compared to what is written about it in the Bible. As a result, reading through the text gives an image of God who is prone to the very mistakes common to humans thus ripping Him off His lofty status of divine and, instead, making Him a mere human. Whether or not Dante did it intentionally is subject to debate but one thing is clear in the poem: the misconstrued notion of God is revealed to future generations.

 

References

Babor, T. F., McGovern, T., & Robaina, K. (2017). Dante’s inferno: Seven deadly sins in scientific publishing and how to avoid them. Addiction Science: A Guide for the Perplexed, 267.

Cheney, L. D. G. (2016). Illustrations for Dante’s Inferno: A Comparative Study of Sandro Botticelli, Giovanni Stradano, and Federico Zuccaro. Cultural and Religious Studies, 4(8), 487.

Verdicchio, M. (2015). Irony and Desire in Dante’s” Inferno” 27. Italica, 285-297.

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