Ethical awareness HEATs up campus

Leaders in Ethics and Academic Discipline (LEAD) is a component within the BELIEF Program whose main goal is to improve student ethical awareness. One way LEAD does this is through their Huskie Ethical Awareness Talk (HEAT) sessions. Each HEAT session features a different guest speaker who speaks on ethics and ethical issues he or she has faced throughout his/her career.

This semester LEAD was able to host two HEAT sessions. The first HEAT session was held on Tuesday, Oct. 10 and featured Luis Santos Rivas, the Director of the Latino Resource at NIU.

Mr. Rivas spoke on how the cancellation of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) affects immigrants and the ethical dilemma that is created. He spoke about ethical dilemmas he faces in his current career, recent current events, and the long term effects of current legislation. LEAD Vice President D’Shawn Louise was the moderator for the event and asked Luis Rivas several questions regarding ethics in his profession and DACA.

Some of the questions included: “What’s the most ethically challenging aspect of your work life? How important is ethics in both your work and personal life? How has ethics changed in your profession from when you were in college to now?” Overall, the event went well and the students learned more about Latino Studies at NIU; ultimately helping bridge the College of Business to other parts of campus.

LEAD’s second HEAT session was held on Tuesday, Nov. 28 with Board of Trustee members Dennis L. Barsema (Board Vice Chair) and John R. Butler (Board Secretary) to discuss ethics and ethical dilemmas they’ve faced throughout their career. The event was set up in panel format where students were free to ask questions. 

Both Barsema and Butler started off by discussing their education and how their view of ethics changed throughout their career. Another great question was “How did Barsema and Butler get on the Board of Trustees?” Barsema said that his name was brought up during one of the board meetings and a few months later he received a phone call asking if he was interested in the possibility of being a trustee.

At first Barsema was not interested because he knew that he would not be able to continue teaching. Yet, after consulting with friends and family members he decided to accept the invitation.