An Assessment of the Ethical Climate on Campus

Abstract

Promoting campus ethics has been regarded as a classic educational goal on campus in Taiwan. A large number of articles and speeches related to education discuss the topic of ethics as well. The impact of pursuing island-wide democracy results in administrative autonomy in the educational institutions. Accordingly, educational administrators and faculty show high concerns of the following neglect of campus ethics. In general, the importance of campus ethics has positioned its supremacy in educational leadership; yet, the examination of ethical climate has been vague to educational practitioners. Promoting campus ethics involves understanding the ethical climate of a campus, that includes knowing what ethical principles an institution espouses, the values and goals it seeks to fulfill, and the processes by which the goals and values are achieved. The purposes of this article are two folds: first, to discuss the issues of campus ethical climate and introduce a multidimensional approach proposed by Banning (1997), used for assessing a campus' ethical climate, and second, take an initial implementation of this approach to a northern college in Taiwan. The concept of the proposed multidimensional approach is illustrated by way of the Ethical Climate Assessment Matrix (see Figure 1) with three main dimensions: the type of physical artifact sending the message, the ethical issues reflecting the message, and the evaluative effect or ethical saliency of the message. The matrix was used to examine the ethical climate on a northern urban college in Taiwan. Photographs, taken on the campus in October 2000, manifested as physical artifacts reflecting the ethical principles, fulfillment of values, and ethical change processes on campuses. The information carried by these photos allows for a future dialogue on campus. All college constituents do not have to agree on the interpretations drown in this article; however, promoting ethical climate movement toward an ethical community is based on the full participation of all campus members in the discussion of differences and actions that should be taken or not taken.