SEC commissioners Paul Atkins and Harvey Goldschmid join Dean Glenn Hubbard and incoming MBA students today for a vigorous debate on the merits and costs of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. The panel discussion kicks off a new School-wide curriculum titled the Individual, Business, and Society: Tradeoffs, Choices and Accountability. The new curriculum addresses the potential tradeoffs that arise in balancing the interests of the individual, the firm and society. Designed to foster dialogue among the School community, the curriculum features panel debates, guest lectures, discussions of cases used in core courses and faculty commentaries. A second panel to be held during Orientation, Corporate Social Responsibility and the Bottom Line, will include P. Roy Vagelos, MD, former chairman of the board and CEO of Merck; Mike Balduino, president of Shorewood Packaging; and Geoff Heal, the Paul Garrett Professor of Public Policy and Business Responsibility. With events scheduled throughout the semester, the IBS curriculum reflects Columbia Business School’s commitment to providing students with frameworks and tools to think critically about conflicts and tradeoffs.