St. Michael’s College at U of T is taking heat from the Toronto Star after the school accepted a $150,000 donation from Imperial Tobacco, a gift which was used to fund a corporate ethics course.

The Corporate Social Responsibility program at St. Mike’s was set up in order to teach continuing education students about topics such as business ethics, human rights and the environment in a business setting, and corporate social responsibility. Many pundits have noted that a tobacco company is the worst possible sponsor for such a program.

In an advertising supplement published in the last issue of The Varsity, an anti-smoking group compared the donation, which was made in 2001, to accepting money from neo-nazis or the Ku Klux Klan.

The four-page ad, paid for by the Non-Smokers’ Rights Association and the Phsycians for a Smoke-Free Canada, also noted that St. Mike’s originally claimed the donation was made by an individual, Bob Bexon, who happened to be the CEO of Imperial Tobacco, but in fact the company listed the grant on their Web site as a corporate donation.

St. Mike’s President Richard Alway has stated in interviews that the money was accepted with the understanding that there were “no strings attached” and that no special recognition would be given to Imperial Tobacco in lieu of the gift. Unfortunately for Imperial Tobacco, special recognition is just what they got, although not in the light that they would have intended. In an editorial, the Star scolded that “Ethics can only be taught by someone whose hands are clean. St. Michael’s College has nicotine stains all over its hands.”

Student Administrative Council (SAC) President Rocco Kusi-Achampong also weighed in on the controversy, saying that “it’s sickening” that St. Mike’s would accept the money. “It’s unconscienable in my opinion.” For Kusi-Achampong, the final straw was the fact that the money is used for an ethics program. “As if they were just mocking all the opposition that society has against them,” he noted. Kusi-Achampong and his SAC peers have already drafted a rebuke to be delivered to both Alway and to U of T President Robert Birgeneau deploring the donation.

As for St. Mike’s, the campus’s ethical screening committee, set up last year, will be looking into the matter according to Alway.