Students' Insights on How a CEO of Jack in the Box Handled a Bacteria Burger Crisis

Today the students showed no recollection of anything we've done in Unit 4 of College Oral Communication 2.  They didn't seem to remember the four categories of corporate responsibility (economic, legal, ethical and philanthropic) that they'd worked on a whole class period or anything about the case of the bacteria burgers that sent people to the hospital in Washington, Idaho and Nevada back in 1993.  But they surprised me in a positive way.  After learning (again) that 28,000 pounds of beef were recalled from Jack in the Box, one student wanted to know what they did with it.

"That's a good question," I said.  "I really don't know."
"Because if they recall a car, they can repair it.  But that's a lot of beef."
"They'll send it to Ukraine," said a Ukrainian student. 

In the second class, when I said that the CEO of Jack in the Box had paid the hospital bills, one student said, "Yes, he had to.  Or they would...." Then she asked for the word she wanted, which I knew was sue.
"What about the time they missed from their job and their family?" another student asked.  "How do they pay for that?"

Very bright responses!  These made up for the totally blank expression they gave me when I began the "review," which seemed to be totally new material.