Welcome to a new academic year at UCCS and opportunities to engage with ethics!

Campus is a little bit different this year. In the past, we offered travel opportunities and ethics workshops or speakers  with meals and a chance to network. However, with challenges come opportunities. We are excited about new opportunities to engage with principle-based ethics for our students, educators, and community.

The UCCS chapter of Student Center for the Public Trust (SCPT) is gathering momentum, and with the support of the national staff, we expect them to be a changemaker on our campus. Look for them at the Club Fair, and plan to take part in a September 18 Kick-off Meeting featuring the Gallup Top 5 CliftonStrengths assessment.

We plan to leverage relationships with organizations focusing on ethics, such as the Ethics & Compliance Initiative (ECI), a professional association of ethics & compliance professionals. UCCS is an organizational member of the ECI that affords us access to resources on ethics, training, certifications, and more! We have two MBA students selected for the Northrop Grumman Ethics Scholarship that includes membership in the organization and attendance at the annual conference. Look for an upcoming panel event on ethics and compliance careers.

Virtual or hybrid events reach a broad audience outside of those on campus and offer innovative ways to reflect on the DFEI principles and encourage a sense of community. We use an online platform for larger events with networking tools. On August 21-22, seventy-eight Ethics Fellows, Student Ethics Ambassadors, and Southern Colorado Ethics Champions joined ethics advocates from UCCS and the region for the first virtual orientation. Over two days, attendees learned about the DFEI Collegiate Program at UCCS College of Business and principle-based ethics from organizations offering resources for ethics education.

Look for more virtual events, such as a virtual UCCS Ethics Case Competition in October, a virtual Ethics in Cybersecurity & Technology event in November, as well as ethics roundtables and lunch and learns through the year.

Our program success depends on an army of champions on our campus and in the region. We are pleased to add 14 educators to our DFEI Ethics Fellows program, 11 new students to the Student Ethics Ambassador Program, and 19 educators to the Southern Colorado Ethics Consortium Ethics Champion Program. Since the start of the ethics fellow and ethics champion program, more courses include activities that apply the DFEI principles. At UCCS, we track 76 new or revised classes that reach 8,500 students and 507 students outside the classroom. In southern Colorado, 2010 students learned of the DFEI principles and ethical decision-making.

The DFEI Collegiate Program at UCCS College of Business continues to be an integral part of the College of Business and campus community. During the coming year, we expect that new opportunities for ethics education will arise and look forward to being a catalyst for principle-based ethics at UCCS and in southern Colorado.

Sincerely,

Tracy Gonzalez-Padron, Ph.D.,

Director of the Daniels Fund Ethics Initiative Collegiate Program,

Professor of Marketing, UCCS College of Business