Ethics Message 2025 Transcript
President Michael Shannon Ethics Message 2025:
Integrity, excellence, accountability, and respect. Shared values which serve
as the foundation for everything we do here at the University of North Georgia and shared values across our entire university system.
as the foundation for everything we do here at the University of North Georgia and shared values across our entire university system.
So now we are kicking off Ethics Week here as we approach the first week in November. And what I want to do today is just share with you the utter importance of ethics in everything we do. You know, we take aside a time every year to spend a week talking about ethics, but ethics is a shared responsibility that we should be having conversations about every day.
But as we approach this week and we lock in and we focus, we're going to unpack why it matters to have ethical
behavior, why it matters in how we do our work, how we serve our students, how we serve our communities.
You know, we hold the public's trust. We are a part of a public university system and ultimately are accountable to our neighbors. And our neighbors need to have the faith that we are ethical and that we are always doing the right thing.
And team, this is very American. This connects with who we are as Americans relative to the Constitution,
relative to civility, and relative to civil discourse. It's a key component. So, as we approach this week, I want you
to think about that. the role that it plays, the role of just being kind and reasonable to one another, the role of
doing the right thing, the role of doing your best to always strive to take care of others.
relative to civility, and relative to civil discourse. It's a key component. So, as we approach this week, I want you
to think about that. the role that it plays, the role of just being kind and reasonable to one another, the role of
doing the right thing, the role of doing your best to always strive to take care of others.
And so this week there's many activities planned starting with a kickoff with the chancellor. There is a panel coming out of our college of arts and letters that I'm incredibly excited about where faculty from various
disciplines will unpack the challenges of ethics relative to those disciplines.
disciplines will unpack the challenges of ethics relative to those disciplines.
We have an amazingly fun event, our trivia and it's meant to be serious, but it's meant to be fun and it's meant to
engage us and bring us together. There's also training that we need you to accomplish this week as well as
another wrap-up session with our system.
And one of the highlights of the week is the ethics bowl where our students have been working incredibly hard to prepare to compete with other schools across the country. And they're actually coming to the University of North Georgia and will compete on our Gainesville campus. The theme this year is how how do you become ethical in a complex world? So ethical decision-making, ethical leadership, how do you show up every day in an ethical way in a world which is as complex as it's ever been.
So I encourage you as we go into this week, I hope it's meaningful. I hope you'll take time to participate in these events. I need you to complete the training. I would love to have you as part of our trivia and please become a part of this and remind yourself every day of why this matters. We are the stewards of incredible trust. We hold the public's trust. We hold our students trust. And all of this matters because as we build a university that's never existed before, we need to have as our centerpiece our bedrock these core values so that ethics permeates
everything we do.
everything we do.
So, thank you for listening. Thank you for wanting to be a part of this and I look forward to an amazing ethics week .
Go Nighthawks.