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Wednesday, October 29, 2014
Northern Star
815-753-5606 H @NIUNorthernStar H NorthernStar.info/Opinion
Halloween isn’t an excuse to drink, act inappropriately
Letter to the Editor
Students: Involve yourself in future
Campus Life Building, Room 130 545 Lucinda Ave. DeKalb, Ill., 60115 Web: www.NorthernStar.info Fax: 815-753-0708 Editorial Board Editorials reflect the majority opinion of the Editorial Board; columns reflect the opinion of the author alone. Editor in Chief & Publisher: Kelly Bauer Editor@NorthernStar.info 815-753-0105
Alexander Martin Student Association Director of Academic Affairs
Campus Editor: Jackie Nevarez Editor@NorthernStar.info 815-753-9643 City Editor: Rachel Scaman Editor@NorthernStar.info 815-753-9644 Day Editor: Keith Hernandez Editor@NorthernStar.info 815-753-9637 Sports Editor: Frank Gogola Sports@NorthernStar.info 815-753-9637 Scene Editor: Kevin Bartelt Editor@NorthernStar.info 815-753-5606 Perspective Editor: Carl Nadig Editor@NorthernStar.info 815-753-9637
Chelsea Ortiz | Northern Star
Don’t blow off state ethics training, waste resources
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Perspective
Marilou Terrones Columnist
Completing annual ethics training doesn’t mean the training has effectively influenced employees: Some rush through the standardized training, which defeats its purpose. Some employees don’t view the ethics training as a serious learning experience and just want to turn it in before the Nov. 12 deadline. “A lot of employees can skip over it. ... You can just let the time run and then click a bunch of buttons and pass the ethics training test,” said Monique Lincoln, senior music administration major and event planner for the Holmes Student Center. While the test’s questions and the scenarios it presents change, some employees neglect to read the revised questions. As a result, taking the test is a waste of their time if they don’t learn something new. “There are new examples or new
explanations each year, but it’s really the same law. It’ll give you an example and you’ll have choices about what’s the right thing to do ... if you answer correctly, it will tell you, ‘Yes, you answered correctly,’ if you answer incorrectly, it’ll still give you the answer. So, you could just click and not read ... but that’s unethical behavior,” said Deborah Haliczer, assistant ethics training officer.
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A lot of employees can skip over it. You can just let the time run and then click a bunch of buttons and pass the ethics training test.” Monique Lincoln Senior music administration major and event planner for the Holmes Student Center
To make sure every question is read, the training shouldn’t allow employees to continue on to the next question if a question is answered incorrectly. Restricting the training until an employee answers each question correctly will increase the chances of participants learning something about ethical behavior. The training should also be
rewritten to make scenarios more relatable to NIU by providing examples of unethical behavior that have occurred on campuses. Beyond teaching employees about ethics, the training has other benefits: It provides resources if employees need to discuss incidents with professionals who provide information on human resources. “In the ethics training, the one good thing that comes out is that they give you contact information of whom you need to talk with to clarify,” said Kelli Vogeler, a supervisor at the Holmes Student Center’s bookstore. “When I first started here, I had no idea how to deal with situations, or when you think that a coworker is mishandling something or doing something that is inappropriate with their time or with some of the resources ... that’s the biggest thing I’ve learned ... who to contact and how to approach things like that.” Although ethics training isn’t as successful at reinforcing ethical behavior for employees as it should be, students should take their time when completing it and attempt to understand its important message.
Student representation is an integral piece of the NIU shared governance system. Our system allows for a great amount of student participation in all decision making bodies; unfortunately, students are not taking full advantage of these opportunities. Major seats for student representation such as on the Undergraduate Coordinating Council and the General Education Committee remain unfilled as few students are seeking such responsibilities. Student input is vital to the successful operation of these committees and is necessary to ensure the student voice is always present. As the director of Academic Affairs for the Student Association, I strongly encourage all students to reach out and seek opportunities to participate in these academic committees. NIU is unique in its focus on student representation and the power vested in the students to choose and influence the direction of the university. It is up to all of us to represent and voice our opinions so the administration can better understand and hear from the students. These committees allow students to govern their own education and have a major say in the future of NIU. I cannot stress enough how important this participation is in the wellbeing of this university. Students who would like to learn more about getting involved in these important committees, please reach out to me at amartin15@niu.edu or in person at the SA Office in the Campus Life Building, Suite 180. Help move this university forward with strong involvement.
See what’s a pass and what’s a fail as judged by Perspective Editor Carl Nadig.
Pass
Fail
City Council saves homes from zones Steam outage will leave students cold City Council decided to exclude the John and Harrison Street neighborhoods from a proposed enterprise zone. These neighborhoods are sacred to the city’s identity. These streets are meaningful to the people who live or have lived in the area. The areas are composed of a mixture of homeowners, college students renting apartments and people who stroll through the area on quiet days. Turning the area into a zone for businesses would not be beneficial to NIU or the city. These places have too much intrinsic value for replacement. Before Monday’s City Council decision, many residents were
concerned about these proposed changes. Some property owners placed signs in the front lawns in these areas that read “Save our homes,” hoping to change the City Council’s mind about the enterprise zone. The city’s image would’ve been hurt with unnecessary redevelopments and DeKalb would’ve lost some of the most beautiful houses in the city. The City Council has yet to decide if it will exclude the Ellwood Historic District from the enterprise zone. For now, the City Council has made the correct decision by excluding the John and Harrison Street areas.
The first week of November is going to start off colder for some parts of NIU than others. Starting on Sunday and ending around Nov. 14, NIU will have a steam outage in seven buildings and in the tunnels between the East Heating Plant to the buildings. The temperatures in Davis, Faraday, LaTourette Lowden, Montgomery and Psychology/ Computer Science halls and Founders Memorial Library are expected to be at least 64 degrees. The repairs are tentatively scheduled and don’t have a final complete date. Students might have to play it by ear and wait after Nov. 14 to have heat returned. Students are advised to wear
extra clothes when in these buildings during the scheduled maintenance time. Even though there’s probably not going to be a blizzard this time of the year, many students will experience the cold sooner than others. Additionally, these buildings won’t have access to hot water in the bathrooms. NIU has said it will loan out space heaters to be placed in requested rooms to warm people. I hope these emergency repairs to the east tunnel system strengthen the conditions of these buildings in case there’s another strong winter ahead for northern Illinois.