Zicklin School Dominates Briloff Ethics Contest

Chen and Watnick

The winners of Baruch College’s 2024 Abraham J. Briloff Prize in Ethics were announced recently, and, not surprisingly, the Zicklin School of Business was a top performer.  

Valerie Watnick, professor and chair of the Department of Law, won a faculty prize for her article, “Climate Change, Marginalized Communities, and Pandemics: A New Paradigm for Transforming Industrial Animal Agriculture through ESG.”  

The Briloff Committee, which reviewed submissions and decided on awards, called Watnick’s analysis “unusual” for focusing on the effects of factory farming on humans, rather than arguing from an animal-rights perspective. Her paper highlights the impact of concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) on both the workers and those living near these facilities.  

Briloff

“I am so pleased and honored to have won the Briloff Faculty Prize in Ethics this year,” Watnick said. “I hope that the paper highlights the impact of concentrated animal feeding operations on marginalized communities. I argue that operating in a less intensive, more ethical manner will not only improve conditions for local communities and workers, but also stem the climate change crisis and be good business in the long term.”

Accounting major Jason Chen (BBA, ’24), a philosophy minor, won the student prize for his essay, “Does the Enemy Have the Moral and Strategic Right to Possess Nuclear Weapons?” The Briloff Committee said the paper was “characterized by hard thinking rather than opining.”  

Rhiannon Neilson, an assistant professor in the Marxe School of Public and International Affairs, won a second faculty prize. 

The Briloff Prizes are funded by a gift from Zicklin alumnus Charles R. Dreifus (BBA ’66, MBA ’73), in honor of Abraham J. Briloff (BBA, ’37), a longtime professor of accounting in the School of Business who was known as “the conscience of the accounting profession.”  

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