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Personal Ethical Dilemma

College Service Project is a student organization on the campus of the University of

North Carolina at Chapel Hill that was founded in August 2015. College Service Project

(CSP) was founded with the lofty goal of eliminating substandard housing locally in Orange

County, North Carolina by offering free, emergency home repair to make homes warmer,

safer and drier. This home repair is completely free to the homeowner and is completed by

volunteer UNC-CH students who are passionate about service. CSP is an affiliate of a larger

organization called Appalachia Service Project (ASP) who holds the same mission but

focuses on Central Appalachia. ASP works in Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky

and North Carolina with the majority of their work occurring through a summer youth

program operating in around 30 different rural counties. It was ASP’s vision to have their

mission expand to a larger scale and therefore launched the CSP program to reach different

college campuses across the country. Having volunteered with ASP for four summers and

worked on their staff for two summers, I became a founder and co-President of CSP at UNC.

There are two main qualities of CSP that are important when considering the ethical

dilemma that follows here. First, CSP operates under ASP’s founding principles, which

draw heavily on ASP’s affiliation with the Methodist faith, and are meant to guide the

decisions of the organization. And second, CSP is a brand new organization to UNC-CH’s

campus where many students still have not heard of us, and we must assume any time a

student hears of CSP it is their first interaction with and impression of the organization.

The ethical dilemma that came about for CSP revolves around an idea for a big

fundraiser for the organization. The idea originally came from our Trip Coordinator, Izzie

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Hirschy, while brainstorming unique ways to raise money for our alternative spring break

trip. The idea was to hold an event in UNC-CH’s Pit, the social hub and center of campus,

called “Screw Dook” the day before UNC played Duke in basketball. At this event CSP

would have large pieces of lumber that are painted Duke’s royal blue and we would charge

students money to drill screws into the lumber with power drills. This is an extremely

clever play on words that taps into the passion of the UNC-Duke rivalry when it is at its

peak. My other co-President, Payton Williams, and I were skeptical of the idea at first due

to the message it would send about our organization and whether it aligned with the

Christian values we were founded on. We also had to consider what our affiliates at ASP

would think when they heard of our fundraising efforts and the repercussions that could

follow for it. However, because the CSP program is so new, there is no precedent as to how

closely our chapter must adhere to ASP’s guidelines or how much independence we have

for ourselves.

The ethical tension that presents itself in this dilemma is one of an individual versus

community as we consider our unique goals as a CSP chapter and our need for funding

versus the community that ASP has fostered and allowed us to be a part of. This decision is

especially important as a new organization because, while this initial dilemma must be

resolved with a situational approach, it sets the precedent to be able to move towards a

more foundational approach for future issues of this sort. A foundational approach for this

organization is ideal in a student organization that has a complete membership turnover

every four years in order to maintain the identity of the organization. The potential

consequences if we chose to hold the fundraiser include damaging the image of our young

organization and hurting ties with ASP, and the consequences of not holding the fundraiser

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include missing out on raising much needed funds and devaluing the ideas of those in

leadership.

The ethical dilemma outlined about is best understood through a duty perspective

of organizational ethics. The duty perspective focuses on the idea that the individual has an

obligation to a wider collective where actions often go against one’s natural inclination.

The “Screw Dook” fundraiser can be considered through this perspective when thinking

about what duties and obligations CSP has to ASP as well as their members and

homeowners. On one hand, CSP as a young organization should operate under ASP’s

beliefs because they owe their existence to ASP and their years of experience. But on the

other hand, CSP has an obligation to the residents of Orange County who are in need of our

services as well as the UNC students who are getting involved in our organization. In order

to resolve this ethical dilemma, Payton and I must decide which of these obligations takes

precedence.

In regards to specific steps being taken to resolve this dilemma, Payton and I have

reached out to ASP’s headquarters to get feedback about the idea to see what the Director

of Advancement’s initial reactions to the fundraiser are. She has responded saying she

would like to run it by ASP’s CEO, Walter Crouch, to get the final decision from a higher

authority. If ASP decided that they were opposed to the fundraiser, I do not think we would

have any choice but to call it off. I believe the consequences of harming that relationship

outweigh the benefits of this particular event, as there are many other ways to fundraise

that money. If ASP does not take issue with fundraiser, the decision would then pass to

Payton and myself as we grapple with deciding the image we want to portray of our new

organization to the public in such a large-scale event.

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