{"id":28149,"date":"2017-10-05T15:42:06","date_gmt":"2017-10-05T21:42:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/?p=28149"},"modified":"2017-10-18T10:53:26","modified_gmt":"2017-10-18T16:53:26","slug":"ethics-first-draws-crowd-stresses-individual-accountability","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/?p=28149","title":{"rendered":"Ethics First draws crowd, stresses individual accountability"},"content":{"rendered":"

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In hushed tones, more than 150 UCCS faculty, staff and students recited a student-developed UCCS creed Thursday morning during the kick off of an Ethics First campaign.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Encouraged to stand pledge-of-allegiance-style by Joey Vijayam, student body president, Student Government Association, the crowd recited tenets of purpose, respect, integrity, determination and excellence before hearing from Chancellor Venkat Reddy and guest speaker Jim Parke, CEO for Blue Ocean Enterprises and Otter Products of Fort Collins. Later, attendees broke into small groups to discuss ethical challenges commonly faced by faculty, staff or students.<\/p>\n

\u201cEthics elevates the institution,\u201d Reddy said before complementing the student initiative that led to the creed introduced this fall and encouraging faculty and staff to adopt it as well.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Reddy connected ethics with respect and academic excellence, early cornerstones of his time as chancellor. He also connected strong ethics to partnerships such as the ones that led to the William J. Hybl Sports Medicine and Performance Center and the National Cyber Center. He posed student retention\u00a0as an area of ethical responsibility\u00a0for the campus.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe respect people who are ethical; it is as simple as that,\u201d Reddy said.<\/p>\n

He posed that an ethical culture makes believers of stakeholders, thus people want to partner with the university because they trust it.<\/p>\n

He also referenced a recent campus survey of faculty and staff about the ethical culture of campus, calling the results \u201cchallenging\u201d and calling on faculty and staff to make both individual and collective improvement.<\/p>\n

\u201cEthics is like oxygen,\u201d Reddy said. \u201cYou can’t see it but it is everywhere. Just like when you are deprived of oxygen you stop breathing, when ethics are lacking in an organization that organization also struggles to breathe. Let’s become the\u00a0institution known for its ethical culture. Together, we can make UCCS the model of what an ethical workplace looks like.”<\/p>\n

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Jim Parke, CEO for Blue Ocean Enterprises and Otter Products of Fort Collins, served as a guest speaker at the Ethics First event.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n