The SIFE Business Club recently conducted an Ethics Panel debate featuring both professors and students as panelists. Communication Professor Dr. Donna Allen monitored the event and the panel was made up of Professors Mollie Sweet, Bill Campton and James Cresswell, as well as students Nipher Malika, Nathaniel Leslie and Rob Uhland. This event was open to faculty and students of NNU and the Nampa community. Over 150 people attended and helped to make the Ethics Panel a large success.
The panel was posed ethics questions that covered a range of topics, focusing on the current disaster in Haiti. Panelists were asked if they thought it more ethical to build many weaker structures to meet immediate housing needs, or instead build fewer but more stable structures that would leave many people without adequate shelter this year. Additionally, the panelists were asked if in a depressed economy they would work for a company they found unethical but was the only position available. The students of Dr. Emerson’s Business Ethics Class provided the scenarios.
The audience was given an opportunity to interact with the panelists by using a cell phone poll. To participate, an audience member could text his or her chosen response to a phone number designated for that particular response. The results were immediately displayed by a video projector, and the use of audience feedback contributed to the overall effectiveness of the debate.
SIFE is preparing another Ethics Panel scheduled in Boise on April 19. Members of the Boise State University community will participate along with several Idaho business leaders.
Story contributed by Lauren Hartford