← Previous Post: | Next Post:

 

Northern Illinois University announces its annual, ever-popular, ethics training module.

[UD has bolded some words.]

It is time again for all NIU employees to complete ethics training.

Under the terms of the State Officials and Employees Ethics Act, all full-time and part-time, regular and temporary faculty, staff, graduate assistants, extra help and student employees must complete online ethics training. Everyone who receives a paycheck from the university must complete this training.

On Wednesday, Oct. 20, all employees will receive an e-mail notification with specific directions on how to access the online training.

… Ethics training begins at 8 a.m. Wednesday, Oct. 20, and concludes at 7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 18. There are no extensions.

The state’s Office of the Executive Inspector General notes that employees who do not comply with the annual training mandate can be subject to fines and disciplinary action.

**************************

NIU didn’t have to use threats. It could instead have told the campus community to complete its ethics training in honor of Rod Blagojevich, who instituted the policy.

Margaret Soltan, October 18, 2010 5:31PM
Posted in: great writing

Trackback URL for this post:
https://www.margaretsoltan.com/wp-trackback.php?p=26920

6 Responses to “Northern Illinois University announces its annual, ever-popular, ethics training module.”

  1. Clarissa Says:

    The Southern Illinois U (where I work) also just announced that we have to participate in this annual waste of time. Our bureaucrats have to justify their insanely high salaries in some way.

  2. francofou Says:

    True for all state employees (except for legislators and the governor…). A tremendous waste of time and energy. The questionnaire is beyond inane (and the university has to pay for its administration).

  3. Eric the Read Says:

    When I think “ethics”, I think “Illinois State Government”.

    In a related note, when I think “ice cream” I think “sushi”.

  4. ricki Says:

    My parents, the last year they taught at an Illinois state school, had to do this.

    I asked my father about it, “But, if a person were unethical, wouldn’t they still know the “right” answers to the questions and answer what they knew the test makers wanted to hear?”

    He told me to shut up.

    And yes, the irony was not lost on him of having to take an ethics test instituted by Rod Blagojevich.

    On my campus, we had to take a test to prove we knew how not to sexually harass people. Of course, by the same token, passing the test meant also that we knew how to sexually harass people but we were claiming we would not.

  5. Margaret Soltan Says:

    LOL, ricki. Reminds me of one of my heroes, Alexander McPherson.

  6. University Diaries » The most excruciating part of the Penn State aftermath… Says:

    […] Blagojevich required this training for every state employee, including professors at places like Northern Illinois University. A person at Western Illinois University testified to the effectiveness of the program here. She […]

Comment on this Entry

UD REVIEWED

Dr. Bernard Carroll, known as the "conscience of psychiatry," contributed to various blogs, including Margaret Soltan's University Diaries, for which he sometimes wrote limericks under the name Adam.
New York Times

George Washington University English professor Margaret Soltan writes a blog called University Diaries, in which she decries the Twilight Zone-ish state our holy land’s institutes of higher ed find themselves in these days.
The Electron Pencil

It’s [UD's] intellectual honesty that makes her blog required reading.
Professor Mondo

There's always something delightful and thought intriguing to be found at Margaret Soltan's no-holds-barred, firebrand tinged blog about university life.
AcademicPub

You can get your RDA of academic liars, cheats, and greedy frauds at University Diaries. All disciplines, plus athletics.
truffula, commenting at Historiann

Margaret Soltan at University Diaries blogs superbly and tirelessly about [university sports] corruption.
Dagblog

University Diaries. Hosted by Margaret Soltan, professor of English at George Washington University. Boy is she pissed — mostly about athletics and funding, the usual scandals — but also about distance learning and diploma mills. She likes poems too. And she sings.
Dissent: The Blog

[UD belittles] Mrs. Palin's degree in communications from the University of Idaho...
The Wall Street Journal

Professor Margaret Soltan, blogging at University Diaries... provide[s] an important voice that challenges the status quo.
Lee Skallerup Bessette, Inside Higher Education

[University Diaries offers] the kind of attention to detail in the use of language that makes reading worthwhile.
Sean Dorrance Kelly, Harvard University

Margaret Soltan's ire is a national treasure.
Roland Greene, Stanford University

The irrepressibly to-the-point Margaret Soltan...
Carlat Psychiatry Blog

Margaret Soltan, whose blog lords it over the rest of ours like a benevolent tyrant...
Perplexed with Narrow Passages

Margaret Soltan is no fan of college sports and her diatribes on the subject can be condescending and annoying. But she makes a good point here...
Outside the Beltway

From Margaret Soltan's excellent coverage of the Bernard Madoff scandal comes this tip...
Money Law

University Diaries offers a long-running, focused, and extremely effective critique of the university as we know it.
Anthony Grafton, American Historical Association

The inimitable Margaret Soltan is, as usual, worth reading. ...
Medical Humanities Blog

I awake this morning to find that the excellent Margaret Soltan has linked here and thereby singlehandedly given [this blog] its heaviest traffic...
Ducks and Drakes

As Margaret Soltan, one of the best academic bloggers, points out, pressure is mounting ...
The Bitch Girls

Many of us bloggers worry that we don’t post enough to keep people’s interest: Margaret Soltan posts every day, and I more or less thought she was the gold standard.
Tenured Radical

University Diaries by Margaret Soltan is one of the best windows onto US university life that I know.
Mary Beard, A Don's Life

[University Diaries offers] a broad sense of what's going on in education today, framed by a passionate and knowledgeable reporter.
More magazine, Canada

If deity were an elected office, I would quit my job to get her on the ballot.
Notes of a Neophyte

Archives

Categories