Ethical processes and decision making are valued and expected in the Bauer College.
For many of our students, this is their first interaction within a professional organization. We should use this opportunity to set a good example of professionalism, which better prepares them for the business world beyond their degree curriculum.
National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO)
Code of Ethics
Institutions of higher education are entrusted by society with great resources and commensurately great responsibilities for creation, dissemination, and preservation of knowledge. College and university business officers play a key role in assuring that high standards of ethical practice attend to the custody and use of these resources. The business officer's personal and professional conduct reflects on his or her institution, the collective profession, and the higher education enterprise at large. To guide business officers in setting and practicing high standards of ethical conduct, the National Association of College and University Business Officers has devised the following code of ethics. NACUBO embraces the values expressed in this code and advocates their observance by its members.
The business officer's conduct should be characterized by integrity and dignity, and he or she should expect and encourage such conduct by others. The business officer should adopt and be faithful to personal values that:
accord respect to self and others;
preserve honesty in actions and utterances;
give fair and just treatment to all;
accept intellectual and moral responsibility;
aspire to achieve quality;
refuse conflict, or the appearance of conflict, between personal and institutional interests; and
engender forthright expression of one's own views and tolerance for the views of others.
The business officer should act with competence and should strive to advance competence, both in self and in others. The business officer should understand and support his or her institution's objectives and policies, should be capable of interpreting them within and beyond the institution, and should contribute constructively to their ongoing evaluation and reformulation.
The business officer should communicate to institutional colleagues the content of this code of ethics and should strive to ensure that the standards of professional conduct contained therein are met.
In discharging his or her duties in accordance with this Code of Ethics, the business officer should enjoy the following rights:
the right to work in a professional and supportive environment;
the right to have a clear, written statement of the conditions of his or her employment, procedures for
professional review, and a job description outlining duties and responsibilities; within the scope of
his or her authority and policy,
the right to exercise judgment and perform duties without disruption or harassment; and freedom of
conscience and
the right to refuse to engage in actions that violate the ethical principles contained in this code or
provisions of law.
SAM policy regarding staff ethics:
http://www.uh.edu/sam/2HumanResources/2A29.pd
Alcohol
All members of the university community and guests are required to comply with federal, state, and local laws regarding the distribution, possession, and consumption of alcoholic beverages. Employees may not consume alcohol during working hours. If an employee’s business meal receipt shows that alcohol was consumed before 5:00pm on a weekday, the meal is not reimbursable.
Confidentiality Concerns
In the course of normal duties in the Bauer College, employees will have access to confidential information. This information may be present on official state documents, in official conversations or in BCB and University of Houston databases. This information includes, but is not limited to:
Salaries
Reclassifications
Resignations
Disciplinary Actions
Reductions in Force
Paycheck Deductions
Medical Leave Situations
Staff Evaluations
Staff Incentive Program
Donors and Corporate Gifts
Student Course Exams
Professor Merit Evaluations
Unreleased Press Releases
Unannounced Administrative Decisions
Faculty and Staff Application and Hiring Information
Conversations regarding personal and professional matters of faculty/staff
It is imperative that the integrity of Bauer College information is maintained. Specifically, any unofficial conversation (written, verbal or otherwise) containing confidential information compromises its integrity. Failure to comply with the confidentiality requirements of this college will result in disciplinary action, up to and including dismissal from employment with the University.
Conflict of Interest
Conflict of Interest is defined as a situation in which an employee has financial or other personal considerations that may compromise (or even simply have the appearance of compromising) his or her professional judgment or integrity in performing university obligations. An example would be a Bauer employee contracting with a family member’s private business to provide services for and receive payment from the Bauer College. Even though that may even have been the vendor with the best value or best quality service, an appearance of impropriety exists because of the family connection.
Annually, eligible faculty and staff will be enrolled in a required training course to remind them of the system and University policy regarding consulting and related party disclosure. The period of this required training will be September 1 - December 31. All eligible faculty and staff are required to complete the on-line training by December 31 for reporting to the Board of Regents.
Dress Code
Employees are expected to dress appropriately, to be neat, to wear clean clothing and to be mindful of personal hygiene. Employees must adhere to special dress standards or uniforms that have been established in their departments. Flagrant violations of commonly accepted standards of cleanliness or dress may be cause for disciplinary action. (UH Staff Handbook)
Business Casual Attire: Slacks that are similar to Dockers and other makers of cotton or synthetic material pants, wool pants, flannel pants, and nice looking dress synthetic pants. Casual shirts, golf shirts, dress shirts, sweaters, tops, and turtlenecks. Casual dresses and skirts. Suit jackets or sport jackets. Loafers, boots, flats, clogs, dress heels, and leather deck shoes.
Jewelry, Makeup, Perfume, and Cologne should be in good taste.
Not Considered Business Casual: Clothing that works well for the beach, yard work, dance clubs, exercise sessions, and sports contests or reveals too much cleavage, your stomach or your under-garments is not appropriate. Shirts with potentially offensive words, terms, logos, pictures, cartoons, or slogans that may be offensive to others are unacceptable. Sweatpants, exercise pants, short shorts, bib overalls, leggings, and any spandex or other form-fitting pants such as bike clothing are not proper for work. Thongs, flip-flops and slippers are not acceptable. Sun dresses, beach dresses, tank tops, sweatshirts; midriff tops, halter-tops, spaghetti-strap are inappropriate for the office.
Certain days can be declared “dress down” days. On these days, jeans and a more casual approach to dressing is allowed. Clothing that has the company logo is encouraged. Sports team, university, and fashion brand names on clothing are generally acceptable on those days.
By establishing a business casual dress code, we want to maintain a professional, business-like image. Employees must use their judgment regarding their personal appearance and when choosing work attire. If you are uncertain about what is acceptable for your department, please check with your supervisor.
Internal Solicitation
Due to the number of solicitation activities that occurred in the past and the degree to which the activity interrupted or distracted employees from doing their jobs, these activities are no longer authorized. Employees spending time soliciting money are not performing state services. There is also a degree of pressure that is inherent to these requests because of employees’ work-relationships. Therefore, BCB does not permit the solicitation of money to support charities, charitable activities, or organizational fund-raising activities within the college premises with the exception of the following.
The only solicitations authorized are those sponsored by the University of Houston, such as the State Employee Charitable Campaign, or by formally recognized BCB student organizations. Student organizations may set up tables in approved areas such as the student lounge to sell items or to solicit funds, however, all related activities are to be managed by the organization(s); autonomous from BCB.
Office-to-office or door-to-door solicitation is not permitted by anyone when it does not directly benefit BCB and the solicitation is not business-related. If the solicitation IS directly beneficial and business-related, then employees may sell items on behalf of BCB or its academic programs.
Examples of unauthorized solicitations are:
Fund-raising by an employee for their child’s organization drive.
Fund-raising by an employee for an employee’s charity or charity drive.
Student organizations using college employees during working hours to collect items for an organization drive.
Examples of authorized solicitations are:
Employees soliciting enrollment and/or participation in a scheduled class or program.
Employees selling academic program-related merchandise at a sponsored event.
Employees soliciting contributions for a college scholarship fund.
If there is any question as to whether an activity is authorized or not, please consult with the Director of College Business Operations.
Leave Reporting
Employees are expected to account for 100% of their time during regularly scheduled workdays in an accurate and timely manner. Vacation time, sick leave, etc. must be reported and approved on a leave request form as well as recorded in PeopleSoft self service for electronic time keeping.
Long Distance Calling Codes
UH employees may not use their university-issued long-distance codes to make personal phone calls even if they plan to reimburse the university.
Equipment
All equipment assigned to an individual is the responsibility of that individual to track (until notification in writing has been provided--see RICS for form), to protect (for example, lock office doors to ensure safety), and to use for work-related purposes.
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