As part of International Fraud Awareness Week, Kennesaw State University held a Presidential Ethics Awareness panel on Nov. 16 to bring awareness to the impact of fraud on organizations and employees.
The panel was sparked by a campaign from University System of Georgia Chancellor Hank Huckaby. His SPIRIT campaign released earlier in November promotes stewardship, prevention, integrity, responsibility, inspiration and trust in Georgia’s public universities.
According to the USG website, this campaign is one part of the Ethics and Compliance Program that includes mandatory training, assurance audits and an ethics and compliance reporting hotline.
“It is this week where we recognize we all actually have this obligation,” said Ken Harmon, provost and vice president for Academic Affairs at KSU. “The idea is we all need to remember that we’re good stewards.”
The panel featured three speakers from different university departments that handle ethics. Many KSU offices set up informational tables to educate attendees about the resources available on campus that they could turn to with an ethical dilemma.
Harmon, attending on behalf of President Sam Olens, spoke to the audience about the importance of reporting fraud as well as the difference between fraud and ethics.
“Ethics and fraud are not necessarily opposite sides of the same coin,” Harmon said. “When you think about fraud, it has to do with something just wrong [or] illegal. To me, ethics is a different threshold. Ethics is doing the right thing when no one is looking.”
All three speakers strongly encouraged the audience to report fraud within the school and learn about the resources available to help them do so.
“If there is something that you see that’s wrong, you need to report it,” said Julie Peterson, the interim chief financial officer at KSU. “If it’s life, safety, health: go to law enforcement. If it’s something else, you go to your supervisor. If you don’t feel like your supervisor is handling it, go to HR.”
Peterson explained the behavior that would be considered unethical to faculty in the audience, such as involvement in conflicts of interest, involvement in nepotism or favoritism, and the acceptance of gifts and gratuities.
Dr. K.C. White, the vice president for Student Affairs, asked her fellow faculty members to remember what unethical behavior entails and encouraged them to ask if they are ever unsure. She also emphasized the importance of maintaining an honest and ethical culture for students.
“We are representing something bigger than ourselves,” White said. “We are representing Kennesaw State University.”
The panel ended with a Q&A, and faculty asked the speakers for solutions to current ethical dilemmas associated with recent events at KSU.
Leonard Witt, founder and executive director of the Center for Sustainable Journalism, voiced his concerns over the appointment of Olens as KSU’s president.
“The ethical dilemma for me and for all of us is what do we do when the Board of Regents breaks its own policy,” Witt said. “The policy states, ‘The Board of Regents is unalterably opposed to political interference or domination of any kind or character in the affairs of USG institutions.’ So what do we do when the top takes an unethical action?”
Harmon explained to the audience that he was not part of the process to appoint Olens — which was done by the Board of Regents — and does not know what happened or what influences were there.
“I know that there have been questions asked, and it’s appropriate to keep asking those questions,” Harmon said. “I think you and others have been on the forefront to ask those questions … I don’t know what authority we have beyond that point.”
Others in the audience also voiced their concerns, asking about unethical faculty spending and getting a budget that can support a quality education for students. Peterson informed the faculty that the Office of Finance and Accounting is looking into how every department is spending its money.
