Ethics Week set for Nov. 6-12

The University System of Georgia (USG) will promote Ethics Week from Nov. 6-12 with the University of North Georgia (UNG) offering various events focused on ethical awareness. It serves as a reminder to employees of the importance of an ethical culture and UNG's year-round commitment to compliance with USG policies, as well as state and federal laws.

UNG promotes a culture of excellence by bringing awareness to its core values of integrity, student-focus, excellence, engagement, and service.

"Leading ethically means an individual does the right thing, even when no one is looking. At UNG, we strive to make it easy to do the right thing and hard to do the wrong thing," Jill Holman, director of internal audit, said. "We exist to enroll and educate students. Teaching ethical leadership in the classroom and through our actions is vitally important in promoting a culture of excellence. Join us this week in celebrating our ethical culture here at UNG."

UNG is designated by the USG as a State Leadership Institution, and one of President Michael Shannon's strategic big bets is to "design and build a leadership foundry."

A daily ethics question will be presented each morning of Ethics Awareness Week on the front page of the MyUNG Notice Board, and Holman encourages everyone to play along. The correct answer will be revealed every afternoon.

UNG will also launch a USG Ethics Refresher Training on Nov. 6 in the SkillSoft Percipio platform that all employees must complete by Dec. 31.

Opportunities for Ethics Week include a system-wide virtual ethics presentation titled "The Color of Money," which will be held from noon to 1 p.m. Nov. 7 to discuss ethical aspects of financial responsibility across the USG. Registration is available via Zoom.

Leading ethically means an individual does the right thing, even when no one is looking. At UNG, we strive to make it easy to do the right thing and hard to do the wrong thing.

Jill Holman

UNG director of internal audit

It will be held at the USG office in Atlanta and streamed live through Microsoft Teams to all USG institutions.

A panel discussion around ethics and compliance best practices, moderated by Procter, will focus on promoting an ethical culture in challenging times and will be conducted virtually from 10-11 a.m. Nov. 9, with registration now open. Continuing education credits will be available for this training through UNG's Office of Professional and Continuing Education.

On Saturday, Nov. 11, the Mid-Atlantic Regional Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl competition will be held at UNG's Gainesville Campus. It is a one-day, multi-institutional collegiate competition held in partnership with the Association of Practical and Professional Ethics (APPE) during which teams compete in a critical-thinking, debate-style competition around 15 regional cases published annually in September.

There are four main rounds, a semifinal round, and a final round within the competition to determine the top teams that will advance to the national competition sponsored by APPE. The 2022 regional event marked UNG securing its first Ethics Bowl national appearance since 2015, where it competed in spring 2023. The UNG Office of University Compliance serves as the integrity partner for the event, handling all case preparation and scoring alongside APPE.

UNG's TRUIST Center is also now offering several products to enhance ethical leadership and culture, including the Building Ethical Leaders professional leadership development program, the Ethical Culture Indicator organizational assessment and the Leadership Effectiveness 360 evaluation.

All the panel events for the USG are being hosted by UNG's Information Technology videoconferencing technician, Sean Evett.