Professors answer Enron questions

For weeks, the media and general public have been baffled by and curious about the details that led to Enron scandal. Monday night three professors offered their own opinions and insight into the scandal during a lecture and discussion session titled "Enron: The Big Cookies Do Crumble."\nThe speakers included Michael Metzger, a business law professor, Tim Tilton, a political science professor and director of the Liberal Arts Management Program, and David Greene, accounting and information systems professor.\nAfter opening speeches by each of the professors, discussion time for questions, clarifications and comments was given. The event was co-sponsored by LAMP and Union Board with the aim of making students more knowledgeable about what may be in store for them in the future and how to become prepared for the hazards of life.\nGabriel Ratliff, a senior in LAMP and organizer of the event, said, "This gives students a chance to actually hear from professors and get more of an academic standpoint rather than just a glitzy media report."\nFor students planning to enter the dreaded "real world" soon, topics like Enron become increasingly important. \n"Just having a good knowledge of what's happening in current events is always good in a variety of situations, especially if you're doing job interviews right now," Ratliff said.\nWhile the scandal itself will probably not impact students' career choices directly, many lessons can be learned from the Enron scandal. \nThe speakers held diverse opinions about what was behind the fall of Enron. Metzger gave a relativistic standpoint while Tilton said that was not the main problem. Tilton referenced several potential problem areas including 401K plans, campaign finance and corporate government.\n"No matter what walk of life you enter, you will always come under pressure," Metzger said. "How you respond to that pressure determines how your life story will turn out."\nOne of the keys to getting to the bottom of what happened is to decipher the actual intentions of the Enron executives.\n"What Enron was trying to do was to account for all of these special purpose entities and partnerships," Greene said. "They wanted to say, 'We don't have any debts.' They were trying to understate the degree of which they had debt."\nGreene also pointed out two possible ways to fix the problem in the future. First, he said the government should be the auditor. \n"What Congress has done…is absolutely strangle the IRS's ability to attract the kind of people you need to deal with the complex kinds of transactions that are involved," Greene said.\nSecondly, Greene said rotating auditors would help avoid allowing auditors to become too comfortable with the company they are auditing. He said this would work in New York City, but probably not in the majority of the country.\nSenior Kristin Young said the scandal has impacted her career choice.\n"I think it will impact my career no matter what I end up doing," Young said. "This is going to affect all of us."\nRatliff has also found his own lesson from the Enron scandal.\n"It's going to make us think twice about investing so much into one thing," Ratliff said. "No matter how good you feel about your company, it's important to diversify. That's probably the ultimate lesson"