SIFE holds week-long festival on ethics

By Adam Brod

During the week of March 5 to March 10, Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) hosted a campus-wide competition of who could make the best business ethics T-shirt design. Entries were judged by all Flagler students who noticed the T-shirt display on the West Lawn and then voted.

The finished T-shirts, along with provocative ethical or anti-ethical statements, spray painted
on large white sheets, were hung on a cloths line for public viewing.

The goal of this project, according to SIFE members Stephanie Slankard, Joe Budd, and SIFE faculty advisor Donna Webb, was to generate conversation about business ethics.

In addition to the T-shirt contest, which had 54 entries, SIFE members made short movies of anti-ethical situations. The movies were remakes of scenes taken from Hollywood productions “Wall Street,” “The Insider,” “Office Space” or “The Broiler Room.” Members of the theater and communication departments were involved. The remade movie scenes were shown at a presentation in the Flagler Room, the evening of March 9.

SIFE Co-president Jessica Minch said she hopes SIFE can make Ethics-On-The-Line better next year. They had already taken steps this year to improve the event.

For example, after the first day, the clothes lines were shifted to accommodate traffic. Question marks were added to some of the provocative statements to show they were meant to be questioned and not followed blindly. Another sheet was erected on two poles saying “What does this mean to you?” to clarify the purpose of the statements.

Samantha Pflanz, the winner of the T-shirt contest, will receive $50. The shirts may be donated to the St. Francis House.