In the 21st century, compliance touches all parts of human nature, creating the need for ethics training in order to maintain the social stability of Eastern and the surrounding community.

Michelle Molitor of Information Technology Services has created a new notification system to insure that University employees get their ethics training done quickly.

The new system prompts all employees upon a PAWS or email login to take care of business.

Molitor’s backup is University Ethics Officer Sandra Bowman, who takes charge in rallying Eastern employees to the task of completing and passing ethics training each year.

“The training takes on average 20 to 40 minutes, and in this age of ethical challenges, I will say that it’s not too much time to take once a year to refresh our memory and to learn something new about ethical behavior that is expected of state employees,” Bowman said.

Part-time employees get the 20 to 40 minute treatment, while full-time employees face a more robust course each year, she said.

To keep training fresh and tenured employees on their toes, state universities submit suggestions based on employee feedback to the University of Illinois, who will then submit queries to a vendor and to the Office of the Executive Inspector General and the Executive Ethics Commission, who approves the training for use the next year.

These offices then have the power to drop discipline and fines on non-complying employees.

Ignoring the new and constant prompts could land employees at the mercy of these officials.

Laura Lehnus, a senior exercise science major, said she believes the training is beneficial.

“The ethics training has given me a different perspective on my job,” said Lehnus, who interacts with all parts of campus regularly at the Panther Card office.

“Some of the topics covered I would not even imagine actually happening,” Lehnus said. “The ethics training should have an effect on employees, but most of the training is common sense and people already know what’s ethical and what’s not.”

Sean McElhenny, a senior communication studies major and student building service worker, said interactive training with a trial and error format comes into play, with consequences for those who do not get it right.

“You get two tries to pass. Then you have to take a class,” McElhenny said. “It’s mostly about not offending coworkers, and there are multiple choices that can be correct, but only one is the best.”

Despite launching an immediate PAWS prompt to all university employees on May 18 to complete the task, Bowman said she gets 20 to 50 emails per day with problems involving the completion of the training; but the battle goes on.

“I think as public servants we need to make sure that we’re doing the best that we can for the public good,” Bowman said.

Joshua Bryant can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected]