Growing Interest Forms

in Annual Ethics Panel

Sean Tibbitts, News Editor

Sean_Tibbitts@csumb.edu

Brennan Phelan, Staff Reporter

Brennan_Phelan@csumb.edu

May 8, 2008

On May 7 the School of Business and the

Division of Humanities and Communication

held the sixth annual Ethics Panel at the

University Center Ballroom and featured

a number of guest panelists from a variety

of backgrounds. This year’s theme was

“Heroic Ethical Action: Challenge the

Norm,” and according to the brochure was

intended to help students understand ethical

issues in a social and business context.

Business Advising Center advisor and

business major senior Justin Gomez has

gone to the past two annual events and

enjoys going to the panel because “ethics

are an important part of education and

business classes at CSUMB.”

Each year there seems to be a growing

interest in the ethics panel amongst the

campus community. According to Panel

Project Manager and Business instructor

Bill Meyer 200 students and faculty attended

the panel in 2006, while in 2007 attendance

rose to 300.

The panelists this year are were all intent

on informing the public about how to make

informed ethical decisions in the business

world as well as in life. One of the panelists

was the United Way of Monterey County

CEO Mary Adams, who has also worked

with the American Heart Association and

the American Cancer Society.

Former CSUMB student James Almeida

was also a panelist, and his message was to

learn from his mistake of making fake ID

cards and to think before you do anything silly.

Almeida now attends Butte College in Chico,

where he works as the Business Advising

Director of the Associated Students.

The panel also included local business

owner Cecil Bindel, who made local history

as the first Caucasian president of the

local chapter of the National Association

for the Advancement of Colored People

(NAACP).

J.S. Harvey and Associates founder Jack

Harvey was the final guest panelist, who

founded and is an active member of various

community organizations including the

Salinas Valley Chamber of Commerce.

Meyer said that he enjoys “finding and

selecting the panelists,” and feels that

“stimulating students to make better ethically

based decisions is critically important.”