The ethics seminar was a good reminder to everyone that everyday we all make decisions that may or may not be morally or ethically sound. The speaker gave several examples to see what how we (students) would react to the situation. One example was if we would knowingly allow our neighbor to lie on his tax returns so that he would generate the most (return checks) without reporting it. While filing tax returns may not be in our immediate future, an overwhelming amount of people voted (or in this case picked the opposite side of the room since we were asked to get up and go to either side of the room depending on how you felt) that they would not report it. One guy said “It’s none of my business what my neighbor does or doesn’t do.”
The speaker then gave us scenarios closer to home- ones dealing with school such as copying homework from other students, cheating on tests and of course plagiarism on papers. She then told us ways to avoid doing things that we would eventually feel guilty for even when we thought what we were doing were morally sound.
Overall, this was a very helpful workshop.