Ethics and Eggs Breakfast to kick off 'Celebrate our Ethical Culture' week

October 16, 2019

Each year, the University System of Georgia (USG) highlights its ethical culture during Ethics Awareness Week, this year Nov. 11-17, through a statewide SPIRIT of USG campaign focused on stewardship, prevention, integrity, responsibility, inspiration, and trust. In support of this effort, the University of North Georgia (UNG) plans to "Celebrate our Ethical Culture" during Ethics Awareness Week.

The USG campaign is part of a comprehensive Ethics and Compliance Program, including ethics training, mandatory compliance training, assurance audits, consulting engagements, and an ethics and compliance reporting hotline.

The weeklong ethics awareness campaign is designed to remind members of the USG of shared ethical values and expectations, to include excellence, integrity, accountability and respect.

At UNG, "Celebrate our Ethical Culture" examines ethics while celebrating institutional values of excellence, student focus, integrity, engagement and service. To kick-off Ethics Awareness Week, UNG will hold an Ethics and Eggs Breakfast from 8:30-9:45 a.m. Nov. 11 on the Dahlonega Campus. The event, which is open to the UNG community and the public, will feature a panel discussion on affordability and degree attainment.

"Our mission is to develop students into leaders for a diverse and global society, and foundational to that is a culture of ethical leadership and character development that envelops our entire university community," UNG President Bonita Jacobs said. “This week gives us special opportunity to examine ethics through the lens of our institutional values – excellence, student-focus, integrity, engagement, and service."

Jill Holman, UNG's director of internal audit, leads the university's efforts.

"In my opinion, focusing on our ethical culture by highlighting our core values, our vision, and our mission at UNG will further encourage and develop ethical behaviors in our employees and in our students. Each year we take this opportunity to focus on our values and encourage ethical decision–making," Holman said.

Rose Procter, director of the BB&T Center for Ethical Leadership within UNG's Mike Cottrell College of Business, serves on the SPIRIT of USG planning committee and is coordinating related efforts through the center system-wide.

A number of events to promote ethics are being held in conjunction with Ethics Week and throughout the semester, including:

The 2019 symposium on Nov. 13-14 hosted by UNG's Institute for Leadership and Strategic Studies, called Soldier-Leaders in the Age of AI: The Future of Pre-Commissioning Education, will feature two guests well-versed in ethical leadership. Retired Army Col. Tony Pfaff, research professor for military profession and ethics at the U.S. Army War College's Strategic Studies Institute, will moderate a panel on ethical implications of AI on the future battlefield. Retired Air Force Maj. Gen. Charles Dunlap, a law professor and executive director of the Duke University Center on Law, Ethics and National Security, is a guest speaker.
On Nov. 16, the BB&T Center for Ethical Leadership at UNG will host the Mid-Atlantic Regional Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl Competition, a one-day competition that brings multiple universities from Georgia and the surrounding states to compete in a debate-style critical thinking competition around 15 regional ethics cases published by the Association for Practical and Professional Ethics. There are 20 teams participating in this year's regional ethics bowl, held at UNG's Gainesville Campus.
During the fall semester, the center also hosts Building Ethical Employability (BEE) high school programs with more than 1,300 participants throughout the region. These programs focus on promoting critical thinking on ethical behavior, ethical decision-making, and allowing students to focus on their core values.
Holman and Procter also are helping pilot a new USG ethics training program that uses a leader-led approach. In the program, a group of employees in a unit or department watches a short video, then is led through supplied training materials by their supervisor with discussions about various scenarios and best ethical practices. UNG’s Executive Council participated in the training in September.