Ethics at Conferences

I got back late last night from a national student affairs conference in New Orleans. There were over 7800 people in attendance from colleges, universities, non-profits, for-profits, and vendors from all over the world. It took less than 2% of our attendance to make the Chronicle over something inappropriate. Yik Yak.

I am still in awe that this happened and became such a trending topic! A little under 70 people posted unsavory comments about attendees, programs, promiscuity and cheating, and more. Get some ethics people! You are at a professional conference, probably being paid for by student fees or a state budget. I take issue with this in two ways.

First, be a role model always, in particularly while at work-related events. If you want to carry on, getting wasted, sleeping around, skipping meetings,- do so off the clock and not at a professional work conference. Go away on a vacation with some friends to a place where no one knows your name.

Second, using social media to express your personal behaviors and opinions while representing your place of work is inappropriate. Did y'all learn nothing from Justine Sacco??

I think it's our job to teach others how to behave in certain situations. We can't teach others and then not follow our own rules and guidance.We can't expect our students to become professional with ethics if we don't model that ourselves. I took six students to this conference and over the course of five days had not one issue. They were awesome, represented our college beautifully, and they enjoyed the experience. We went over expectations beforehand and I made it clear that acting a certain way brings perceptions and may get you fired. I also made it clear that they were privileged to have the opportunity to attend this conference at no cost to them and should be good stewards of those funds. Finally, I made it clear that I don't act that way, so they had better not do anything to embarrass me, our program, or the college. I wonder if these people, who were anonymously posting all over the place, had that same conversation with their supervisors?

What do y'all think?