UCF Compliance & Ethics Newsletter

During my business career prior to becoming UCF’s interim president, many of the companies I worked for had a common philosophy: we don’t build our reputation, our customers do.

Our customers came to a sense of who we were and what we valued by their own experience with us, and they shared that opinion, good or bad, with others.

The reputation of a university is similar. Each experience students, employees, partners, and the community have with us, good and bad, forms an impression. An error in judgment or a mistake, even if it was made just once, can irreparably damage the reputation of the university and its employees.

As Warren Buffett succinctly put it, “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it.”

Organizations that maintain strong reputations foster an ethical culture.

Purpose of Export Controls

U.S. Export Controls regulate the distribution by any means (i.e., research) of strategically important “things” because of U.S. foreign policy, national security, nonproliferation, economic interests and international obligations. The original intent of export controls was to regulate technologies present in industry, not academia; however, the expansive “research drift” of industrial research and development conducted at universities requires monitoring of compliance.

It’s a profession that has been around for centuries but remains relatively unknown. According to the International Ombudsman Association, “Ombuds work in and with all types of institutions, including governments, colleges and universities, corporations, nonprofits, hospitals, and news organizations. As an informal channel through which constituents (employees, students, faculty, public citizens, specific populations, etc.) can discuss and surface problems. Ombuds programs provide a safe place to address issues without fear of retaliation. This in turn enhances governance, ethics, and risk management strategies, contributing to the overall well-being of public and private organizations, government, and the public.

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