USC seeks campus input in Code of Ethics redraft

USC is creating a survey for students, faculty and staff in its first step to redraft the Code of Ethics, which aims to reflect the principles of the University while incorporating important topics from national discussions.

The goal to redraft the Code of Ethics, which was last updated in February 2014, was set forth in the Action Plan released last semester by the University administration. Interim President Wanda Austin and Senior Vice President of the Office of Legal Affairs and Professionalism Carol Mauch Amir will spearhead the project, which is one of many Action Plan initiatives listed in USC’s Change Progress Dashboard.

The code highlights two main ideals: respecting the rights of others and fulfilling University obligations transparently. It also lays forth a series of statements about the behavior that the University expects from its faculty, staff, students and trustees, including accomplishing University promises and speaking out against bigotry.

The University will use a Values Survey hosted by the Barrett Values Centre, which offers metrics to help organizations manage the culture of their environment. The centre will to reach out to students, faculty and staff regarding the values they would like to see incorporated into the redrafted Code of Ethics, according to Stacy Giwa, vice president of the Office of Ethics and Compliance. Giwa is co-managing the redrafting process along with Austin and Amir.

“While we will lead that redrafting, the content will be driven with input from across the community,” Giwa said. “I’ll be accountable for pushing it along, getting that stakeholder input, and then developing an awareness campaign for the University.”

USC will lead engagement sessions in Fall 2019 after the Values Survey to gather input before redrafting the code as a resource for the community that will present more explicit measures for different situations, Giwa said.

“Think of the code as the vehicle by which we highlight our values and engage the community about how we all want to live those values and engage in ethical decision making,” she said.

Assistant professor of research radiology and pediatrics Jessica Wisnowski believes the redrafting of the code is important.

“We need to take a deep dive into both revisiting our own values and how we’re going to hold ourselves to those values, and how to make that work for everyone at this institution; for the students, for the faculty, for the staff, for the people who come here just to seek care,” Wisnowski said.

Caroline Liekweg, a freshman majoring in neuroscience, would like to see a Code of Ethics that can help with transitioning from high school to college.

“I think every school needs a Code of Ethics so that way people have some guidelines for what they should be following, especially when it comes to freshmen, because high school into college can be a big change,” Liekwig said. “Even though their ethics might be pretty similar, there can sometimes just be small little changes that can make a big difference.”

Evan Ho, a sophomore majoring in architecture, wants the University to rewrite its Code of Ethics more often in order to stay up to date with current events.

“Ethics and rules of conduct are constantly changing as people change, so should the rules that govern them,” Ho said. “I think that frequent and thorough redrafting of things like this is super important.”

The Office of Ethics and Compliance plans to interact with students, faculty and staff to research different avenues of communicating the code to the community once it is completed, Giwa said.

“Part of what we are doing now when we are looking at how we will engage around the values discussions themselves, is planning what are the right types of engagement avenues,” Giwa said. “They may differ for students, faculty and staff.”

According to the Action Plan, the new Code of Ethics will be sent out to all staff and faculty for acknowledgement upon completion..

The core information required to redraft the Code of Ethics is not expected to be completely collected until December 2019, Giwa said.