Director’s address Ethics: A Higher Standard Than the Law
By Neil Doughty, director, BELIEF Ethics Program
When contemplating their future professional careers, I always encourage students to follow the strictest ethical standards for any given situation, even above and beyond any existing legal standards. I explain to them that even though there may not exist a law expressly prohibiting a particular activity, it can still be unethical and wrong. How can this be? If something is clearly unethical, shouldn’t it also be illegal?
There are several reasons why there is not a one-to-one correspondence between ethics and laws. First, it takes a lot of time and effort to create a law. Because of this, it’s not possible to have laws on the books that expressly address every possible human activity. Ethics are derived from moral principles, which are broad categories of communally acceptable behaviors. Examples of moral principles are that one should always be honest, and one should never cause harm to others. These principles are interpreted to create ethics, which are acceptable standards of behavior given a specific situation. This process can and should be applied at all times, regardless of whether a specific law exists.
In order to create a law, many complex and time-consuming steps must be completed. Someone in a legislative body must learn of a situation that could benefit from a governing law. After educating themselves on the subject, they will
BELIEF Director Neil Doughty.
write and sponsor a bill which may or may not be brought up in committee for discussion. If it is brought up and approved by the committee, it is brought up for discussion in the full legislative body. This discussion can take considerable time, depending on the complexity of the issue and the total of other activities being addressed by that body. If it passes a vote of the entire body, it is sent to a leader such as a mayor, governor or president for signature. If that leader does not sign it, it becomes subject to votes to override their veto.
There’s still a lot of work to do even if the bill is passed. Applicable penalties for violation of the law must be set, including fines and/or incarceration standards. The entire police and possibly FBI apparatus must be aligned with this new law. All of this takes time and energy. There’s also the opportunity cost of creating a law. Time spent on one precludes creation of another,
which contributes to the lack of a comprehensive catalog of laws addressing every conceivable situation.
Second, new technologies emerge all the time, resulting in new situations that have never been contemplated before. Going back in time a bit, the development of the internet resulted in individuals’ personal data being sold without their knowledge or consent. Privacy laws have since been developed, but there was a time lag between the emergence of the activity and development of applicable laws and standards. HIPAA standards were developed to protect individuals’ health records, an important protection since health records have moved online. More recently, the emergence of artificial intelligence and its insinuation into every part of our world is creating new situations that were never before considered. The law obviously trails these new developments.
Because of these facts, it is always best to follow the strongest ethical standards in a given situation, regardless of the lack of specifically applicable laws. Andrew Fastow, the former CFO of Enron and a key architect of its off-balance sheet strategy for concealing losses, has said this was the mistake he made, and he paid dearly for it. Our students need to remember that following the strongest ethical standards is not just a nice thing to do, it’s the professional thing that protects them and their employers from significant harm.
Eller Case Competition Fall 2023
Congratulations to the student team of Hadeon Berezowski and Skye Washington on their fine performance at the fall 2023 Eller Ethics Case Competition, which was held at the University of Arizona in Tucson. The team spent three weeks researching the case, which dealt with the ethics of incorporating artificial intelligence into health care applications. The team assumed the identity of a management consulting firm making a presentation to a private equity company on the advisability of investing in such applications, and doing so in an ethical manner. Berezowski and Washington made an excellent presentation and received positive feedback from the judges. Thank you to them for their hard work. Thanks also to LEAD, Faculty for Ethics, and LEAD alumnus Sam Kunde, CPA for helping the team prepare.
Ethics Bowl 2023
Congratulations to the team representing NIU at the Ethics Bowl regional held in November, 2023, at the University of Chicago. BELIEF director Neil Doughty and the team of Jakob Kruse, Hasina Jefferson , Raniah Dubose, LEAD member Edith Escorza and Malcolm Graham traveled to the event at the U of C Hyde Park campus Nov. 11, 2023, after spending several weeks in preparation. The team researched a dozen ethics cases and
prepared arguments for each. In the Ethics Bowl, teams from two schools face off against each other in a debate-style format. The NIU team completed four rounds, competing against teams from the University of Arkansas-Little Rock, Harper College, Vanderbilt University, and the University of Indiana. The team did well in each round and received positive feedback from judges. Thanks again to the team for the tremendous amount of work they put into this event.
Thank you to Associate Dean Daewoo Park
For the past five years, Daewoo Park has supported BELIEF by engaging with our Faculty for Ethics (FFE) group. His insights and support have been invaluable as we continue to advance ethics education at the College of Business. We wish to thank him for his contributions as he steps away from his associate dean role at the end of the 2023-24 school year. Thank you, Professor Park for your friendly and valuable collaboration. We look forward to your success in your new role and remember, you’re always welcome as a judge at our annual high school ethics case competition.
Hadeon Berezowski and Skye Washington.
NIU attendees of the Ethics Bowl regional held at the University of Chicago.
BELIEF Week Fall 2023
Our fall BELIEF Week was held in October 2023.
On Oct. 3, BELIEF Director Neil Doughty moderated a panel discussion with John Tsaras, senior director of global analytics and insights at Coca-Cola; Karli (Oosterbaan) Jedlicka , vice president of business operations at EverTrue; and Paul Fruhwirth , vice president of health, benefits and commercial risk at Aon. They spent an hour discussing the correlation of ethics to career success. They also shared their experiences from their time as NIU students themselves, and discussed how new employees in the workforce can identify ethical problems and deal with them professionally. Over 100 students attended this virtual event. We appreciate the insights they shared with our students.
On Oct. 5, our speaker was Velchamy Sankarlingam, president of product and engineering at Zoom Video Communications. Sankarlingam is also an alumnus of NIU, having received his M.S. in computer science in 1990.
Once again, over 100 students attended this virtual event to hear Sankarlingam discuss the importance of understanding ethics in emerging technologies.
HEAT Events Provide Ethical Insights
LEAD hosted four Huskie Ethics Awareness Talks (HEAT) during the 2023-24 school year. HEAT talks are designed to give students experiences that will help them address ethical issues in their careers.
On Sept. 26, 2023, LEAD hosted a student workshop where they guided students through the BELIEF Decision Making Framework. They applied the framework to the case used at that semester’s Eller Ethics Case Competition. This
also helped the Eller team prepare for the competition since it gave them insight into how students interpreted the case.
On Nov. 14, 2023, LEAD collaborated with Women in Business Professions to present an address by NIU alumna Jocelyn Moore, general manager of GD&I practice leadership at Microsoft. Jocelyn addressed ethical considerations of diversity, equity and inclusion.
On Feb. 6, 2024, LEAD again hosted a student workshop on the application of the BELIEF Decision Making Framework. This time they used the case for the Templeton Ethics Case Competition. As with the fall workshop, this helped the Templeton team prepare for the competition.
On March 26, 2024, LEAD hosted an address by NIU alumnus Frank Scarpiniti, who is the chief financial officer at Hehmeyer. Scarpiniti led an hour-long discussion on ethical lessons he has learned during his long and distinguished career.
John Tsaras.
Paul Fruhwirth.
Karli (Ooserbaan) Jedlicka.
Velchamy Sankarlingam.
Jocelyn Moore.
Frank Scarpiniti.
Templeton Case Competition Spring 2024
Brown, Neil Doughty and Antonio Maldonado.
Congratulations to our student team of Tony Brown and Antonio Maldonado for their great performance at the Templeton Ethics Case Competition. The event was held Feb. 22 and 23, 2024, at Stetson University in Deland, Florida. Fifteen teams participated, giving Brown and Maldonado the opportunity to meet with bright students and faculty from around the country. Our team was given a case where they were to act as consultants to a fictitious Florida college struggling to deal with the Fentanyl crisis. They developed a comprehensive plan of prevention and treatment, keeping in mind ethical considerations of individual rights and privacy rights. They did an outstanding job of representing themselves and the NIU College of Business.
Congratulations, Tony and Antonio.
BELIEF Faculty Development
BELIEF hosts a Faculty Development Event each school year. The purpose of this event is to keep our faculty current on ethical issues and support their ability to reinforce ethical principles in the classroom. This year’s event was held April 5, 2024. The featured speaker was Alfonso Alexander, president of the NASBA Center for The Public Trust, an organization that provides ethical leadership and training programs. Alexander
led a discussion of topical ethical issues, including viewing and discussing several office role-play scenarios. We appreciate the insights he provided during his address.
Event
BELIEF Week Spring 2024
Many thanks to our terrific guests for the Spring 2024 BELIEF Week Speaker Series. We had over 100 students in attendance for both of these virtual events.
NIU College of Business alumnus Naty Figueroa joined us Feb. 26, 2024 to discuss her career path from NIU to a senior position at BP, and also how ethical behavior has benefitted her in her career. She shared details of her career path, which was helpful to our students since she’s an NIU alumna, a first-generation college student, a minority, and a woman who has achieved significant success in the corporate world. Figueroa is a tremendous role model for our students.
Bill Carlson joined us Feb. 27, 2024 with an introspection on his life. He is a former wealth manager who committed fraud and spent time in federal prison, despite seemingly having achieved the American dream. He talked about how he examined why he made such a bad choice, how he adopted his philosophy that gratitude
is the antidote for unethical behavior, and how he changed his life and made amends to those he harmed. His message of gratitude, introspection and redemption was very powerful.
Thanks again to Naty and Bill for sharing their valuable stories with our students.
Tony
Naty Figueroa. Bill Carlson.
Alfonso Alexander.
LEAD Alumni Report: Tera Lima, NIU Class of 2021
Tera Lima was a member of LEAD from fall 2017 through spring 2021, and acted as LEAD president for the 2019-20 school year. Here is her perspective from three years into her professional career.
Tell us about your current professional role: how you got the job, how long you’ve been doing it, and what you’ve learned.
Flashback to 2021 — my last semester at NIU, frantically searching for a career to pursue post-graduation, and also keeping myself busy by hosting events for the Leaders in Ethics and Academic Discipline (LEAD) program in the College of Business. Since I was pursuing a sales career, I thought it would be beneficial to my fellow sales students to host an “Ethics in Sales” event with NIU alumni Andrew Gorski. Andy spoke about his career in the IT industry and ethics in general for professional work environments. After the event, Andy referred me to CDW and I am still there almost three years later.
I am currently an account manager with CDW. In my day-today role, I am working directly with customers to help them with their full-stack technology solutions. We consult with our customers on a vast portfolio of products and services, including data center, networking, cybersecurity, digital transformation, etc. Technology is constantly changing, and I am learning about a new product or solution on a daily basis. However, since I have been in the account manager position, I have learned about the importance of creating and maintaining relationships. At the end of the day, people really just buy from who they like and trust.
Tell us where you hope to be in your career five and 10 years from now.
Ideally I would like to be in CDW management in the next five to 10 years. I love my current role and working with customers, but I also love helping my peers become successful.
Tell us where you’re from and why you decided to come to NIU as a student.
I grew up in the Gilberts, Illinois, area. I decided to come to NIU specifically due to the College of Business and the opportunities to get involved in extracurriculars. A bonus was that it was close to home, and I was able to commute.
Talk about your experience as a student at the COB and how it prepared you for your career. Give current students your advice on how they can use their time at the COB to prepare for their careers.
I received my bachelor’s degree in marketing, minored in social entrepreneurship and got a certificate in professional selling. Besides the academic side of my time at the NIU COB, I attribute a large amount of my professional success to getting involved. I was a member of LEAD, CAUSE and the Dean’s Student Advisory Board. Not only did I learn how to manage my time and manage a team of people, but I also got the chance to network with industry leaders and alumni. I would definitely recommend taking advantage of extracurricular options not only in the COB, but on a university level as well.
Tell us why you joined LEAD, what that experience was like and how it prepared you for your career.
At freshman orientation, I met the president of LEAD at the time and immediately knew it was an organization that I wanted to join due to the people I met and the mission that LEAD put forward. Throughout my time in LEAD, I was able to engage with leaders and alumni through events, learn about multiple different career paths and industries, participate in ethics case competitions where I could work on presentation skills, and organize our own ethics case competition for local high school students. LEAD also gave me multiple leadership opportunities as I took on roles including vice president of marketing, president and vice president of events. With all of this experience from the program, I acquired many skills that help me on a day-to-day basis in my current sales career.
Talk about the importance of developing and maintaining a good reputation.
Developing and maintaining a good reputation is key in the professional world. Building a strong personal brand can help with career growth, building and maintaining relationships, establishing credibility and overall your character impacts those around you. Although there are millions of businesses in the U.S., you would be surprised how small the professional world is. Word travels quickly, and if you have a good reputation you will continue to flourish in your career. Specifically in sales — customers buy from people they like.
Tera Lima.
LEAD President Jenna Robinson Reflects
After holding various officer roles in previous years, Jenna was the president of LEAD for the 2023-24 school year. Here is her reflection on LEAD and her time at NIU.
Where are you from and why did you decide to come to NIIU?
I am from the very small town of Pearl City, located in Northwest Illinois. Both of my parents graduated from NIU and growing up we had season tickets to the football games, so I had already felt like NIU was home. My senior year of high school, I came on an official visit to the College of Business and was able to meet faculty and students, and that experience really solidified my decision to spend the next four-plus years of my life at NIU.
What did you major in here at the College of Business?
I started out as a business administration major, but eventually discovered that I enjoyed my accounting classes, so I switched my major to accountancy at the end of my sophomore year.
What are your near-term professional goals, and where do you hope to be five and 10 years from now?
I just graduated with my Bachelor of Science degree in accountancy this May, and I plan to pursue a Master of Accounting Science degree starting this summer. I also hope to start the CPA examination process this summer, and plan to have the exams completed by the next summer. I have completed two internships with Wipfli LLP, a medium-sized public accounting firm, and plan to start working there full time as a staff accountant in June of 2025 after completing my master’s degree. I plan to work there for at least five years, hopefully making my way up to manager or senior manager. I have been interested in forensic accounting since my freshman year of college, so I would love to work on Wipfli’s forensic accounting team. Super-longterm, I would love to work as a forensic accountant for the FBI.
How did you learn about LEAD and what made you decide to join?
I learned about LEAD at the Involvement Fair during Week of Welcome my freshman year. I found the LEAD
table, but there wasn’t anyone standing there, so I just reviewed the poster and took a flyer. The table was then approached by Allison and Sydney, two former LEAD presidents, who apologized for not being there because they were petting Mission. I love dogs, especially Mission, so that was the deciding factor in me joining the organization.
What was your experience in LEAD like, and how do you think it helped you prepare for your career?
LEAD was the first organization I joined during my freshman year, and it was the first leadership position I had held while in college. I think that working my way up the leadership chain really helped me see different responsibilities and be able to adapt to whatever was thrown at me. It was also very helpful to be exposed to the ethical dilemmas of our HEAT and BELIEF speakers early, so that I could start preparing for what I may have to deal with in my future career.
What are your favorite memories of your time at NIU? Of your time in LEAD?
I have had the best four years at NIU, and I honestly don’t think I could pick just a few of my favorite memories. I have really enjoyed going to the football games to experience them as a real college student, making so many friends, and being so heavily involved in the College of Business. I have convinced many of my friends to join LEAD over the years, so I have lots of fun memories from LEAD as well. I think my favorite memory from LEAD would be hosting the high school case competitions. It is a lot of work every year, but it’s so fun to see what the high school teams come up with every year.
What is your advice to younger students at the COB about how they can best prepare themselves for the professional world?
Get involved! I know that advice is repeated over and over again, but joining different organizations can show you what you are truly interested in and allow you to make friends. I would suggest joining organizations other than just COB orgs, it will really help broaden your perspective. I think its also really important to make connections with your professors; it may be scary at first, but they really do want to get to know you and help you determine future plans. I have needed many letters of recommendation during my time in college, so having good connections with your professors will make things like that easier to ask for.
See Jenna Robinson on Page 8.
Jenna Robinson.
High School Ethics Case Competition
LEAD hosted our annual High School Ethics Case Competition April 19, 2024. Huge thanks to everyone who contributed its success, including volunteer judges, Huskie Helpers, Angie Listy and College of Business staff, the high school teams and of course our awesome LEAD students who planned and ran the event. This year’s participants included 55 teams from DeKalb, Sycamore, Rochelle, Genoa-Kingston, Rockford
Christian and Belvidere high schools. Judges included alumni, faculty, grad students and others from across the university. It was great to see such broad participation.
Many of our judges return year after year, and we are grateful for that. Special thanks to LEAD President Jenna Robinson for leading the charge. Thanks also to Bart Sharp for making the trophy once again.
Awarding of the High School Ethics
Jenna Robinson
Continued from Page 7.
Talk about the importance of being ethical and protecting your reputation. Being ethical and protecting your reputation is not just something that you will face in your future career; you likely are already facing or have faced ethical dilemmas in school or your personal life. With our generation being so involved with the internet, one bad decision can impact your whole life, so being aware of ethics and protecting your reputation is so important. It’s also important to know that most of the ethical disasters that we hear of started out as something small and escalated over time. You might think that using cheating on one exam to help you pass a class might be nothing, but over time can lead to worse decisions and bigger consequences.
Assistant Professor Cockburn Leads Ethics in Negotiation Workshop
Assistant Professor Bethany Cockburn, in conjunction with BASA (the Business Administration Student Association), led a workshop entitled “Ethics in Negotiation” April 16, 2024. Approximately 55 students attended this important event.
Professor Cockburn led the audience through a presentation on negotiation techniques and had them role play a legal action from a case study of a traffic accident. Included in her presentation was an
examination of what ethics are and why they matter in negotiations. She defined ethics, as “broadly applied social standards for what is right and wrong in a particular situation, or a process for setting those standards.” The key message of her presentation was as follows. “Negotiators frequently overlook the fact that, although unethical or expedient tactics may get them what they want in the short run, these same tactics typically lead to tarnished reputations and diminished effectiveness in the long run.”
Professor
Case Competition trophy.
Assistant
Bethany Cockburn.
Institute of Internal Auditors/ Second City Webinar
BELIEF Director Neil Doughty served on a panel for a May 17, 2024 webinar hosted by the Institute for Internal Auditors. Approximately 100 auditing professionals attended this continuing education event, which was entitled “Hallmarks of Effective Compliance Programs: They Are Not Just Greeting Cards.”
Other panelists were Kimberly White, vice president and general counsel — Compliance at Ingredion Incorporated; Lea Fox, internal audit senior at DePaul University; and Tyler Dean Kempf, creative director of Second City Works.
The panel provided commentary on several roleplay videos created by Second City Works. The videos depicted various ethics and compliance situations in the workplace. The event was a great opportunity to highlight the value of the BELIEF program and its Decision-making Framework.
LEAD Environmental Activities
In May 2024, LEAD planted 10 more trees along the walkway between Barsema Hall and the large east parking lots. There are now 23 trees along that path, with more to come. While seedlings now, these trees are Eastern White Pines, which can reach 60 feet in height when mature. In addition to supporting the natural ecosystem, these trees will provide cheer to students making that long walk during the winter months.
The three red maple trees planted in the Lucinda Avenue median in 2022 continue to flourish, and LEAD continues to maintain flower beds outside Neptune Hall and in Central Park between Grant and Stevenson Halls.
Neil Doughty.
Lea Fox.
Kimberly White.
Tyler Dean Kempf.
LEAD — Leaders in Ethics and Academic Discipline
LEAD is the student group in support of BELIEF.
LEAD students bring speakers to the College of Business for Huskie Ethics Awareness Talks (HEAT), host a high school ethics case competition, compete in intercollegiate ethics case competitions around the country and organize other activities to promote ethics education.
Jenna Robinson LEAD President Business Administration Major Graduated May 2024
Edith Escorza LEAD Vice President Human Resources Major Social Entrepreneurship Minor Expected Graduation: May 2026
Jared Warner LEAD Director of Sales and Events Accountancy Major Business Innovation and Entrepreneurship Minor Expected Graduation: Dec. 2024
Vanessa Olandese LEAD Secretary Accountancy Major Graduated May 2024
Bella Alfaro LEAD Director of Marketing Marketing Major with Certificates in Digital Marketing and Professional Sales Graduated May 2024
Rico Altamirano Management and Leadership Major Graduated May 2024
Frank Beecham Human Resources Management Major Graduated December 2023
Venus Dorantes Business Administration Major Expected Graduation: May 2027
Chao Hoang Accountancy Major Expected Graduation: May 2025
Elsie Kemigisha Accountancy Major Graduated December 2023
Blerina Mimini Business Leadership Management Major Expected Graduation: May 2025
Olivia Lockwood Finance Major Graduated May 2024
Alondra Vargas Computer Science Major Expected Graduation: May 2026
Faculty for Ethics (FFE)
Faculty for Ethics is the faculty group in support of the BELIEF program. They meet monthly during the school year to identify ways to broaden the scope of ethics education at the college. They also help LEAD members prepare for intercollegiate ethics case competitions and serve as judges for the high school case competition that is run by LEAD.
Daewoo Park Associate Dean
Neil Doughty BELIEF Director
Mark Mellon Accountancy
Biagio Palese OM&IS
Reza Rajabi Marketing
Wenlian Gao Finance
Eric Michel Management
Ethics Drop-in Module Introduced
A cornerstone of BELIEF is that every course taught at the College of Business is to include an ethics component. Rather than providing a single ethics course for students to take and subsequently forget about, BELIEF takes an immersive approach, where students are taught about ethical behavior repeatedly throughout their academic career at the College of Business.
The drop-in module was developed to provide our faculty with an easy way to satisfy this requirement. Two initial videos have been produced, with more to be developed each year. This is especially helpful for new faculty, who are learning new procedures and preparing to teach courses that are new to them. These videos will be posted on the BELIEF website and can also be accessed by contacting BELIEF Director Neil Doughty.
LEAD Supports Leadership Academy
The NIU College of Business held its annual Leadership Academy April 12, 2024. Approximately 60 students from Burlington Central High School came to Barsema Hall to learn about the College of Business and participate in a series of leadership-centric presentations. LEAD ran ethics workshops with those
students, walking them through the BELIEF Decisionmaking Framework as applied to a case study dealing with ethics in corporate sales. The event was another great example of how LEAD supports ethics education at the College of Business.
Screenshot of drop-in module teaching ethical behavior.
BELIEF Budget Reconciliation (07/2022-06/2023)
Multiple support levels available for BELIEF sponsors.
Our BELIEF Partnership Program offers individuals and organizations tailored engagement opportunities based on your interests and needs. At every level, you can play a part in fostering core ethical values and moral courage in the classroom and the business world.
BELIEF Partnership Program
EXCLUSIVE EVENTS AND NETWORKING OPPORTUNITIES
Invitation to HEAT Talk Hookups — Networking opportunities prior to HEAT events
Subscription to BELIEF Briefings and Annual Report.
Invitation to BELIEF Week keynote pre-event.
Membership on BELIEF Advisory Board — input on curriculum, networking with other BELIEF supporters and college leadership, interactions with students.
Access to the College of Business Dean’s Board of Executive Advisors biannual Board Round Up.
meeting with dean.
BRAND EXPOSURE AND PROMOTION
Recognition at all BELIEF/LEAD events, online, in all publications and in our Impact Lab.
One named event/program per year — Case competion teams, High School Ethics Bowl, Speaker Series.
Named Director — BELIEF, Business Consulting, Passport, Career Development.
Print advertisement in the college magazine.
ACCESS TO TALENT
Priority participation in our freshman Business in Action course.
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CONSULTING SERVICES
One ELC project and one MBA project per year.
Two student scholarships ($1,000 each awarded to LEAD, ELC or Passport Scholar students).
Benefits are cumulative to the higher levels.
