The Essence And Definition Of Ethical Dilemma

With the rising costs of living and continuing education, it is easy to become overwhelmed financially. For Suri this was the case. Suri was struggling between the cost of her courses and the textbooks for her courses. She happened upon some information that would enable her to get paid for the work she was already doing for school. Suri was faced with an ethical dilemma that could offer benefits and/or consequences. Suri decided to get paid to upload her schoolwork to a website on the internet. Let’s cover a benefit, a consequence, and an ethical solution to Suri’s dilemma.

The Meriam Webster Dictionary online defines ethics as “a set of moral principles”(Merriam-Webster, n.d.). The dilemma is defined as “a usually undesirable or unpleasant choice” in the online Merriam-Webster Dictionary (Merriam-Webster, n.d.). When you put these words together you form an ethical dilemma which is having choices where at least one of those choices will go against morals or standards of yourself and/or others. Suri’s circumstance is an Ethical Dilemma because she presented herself with two options. Option 1: she can do nothing and continue as she is currently. Being overwhelmed with the cost of higher education may cause her to not be focused on the class and make her grades suffer. Not having enough money may mean that she must decide between books for this course and no books for that course. This can directly affect her college career. Option 2: upload course documents to a website and make money. The money she will then use to help her purchase needed textbooks for her upcoming courses. This option would alleviate the stress and overwhelming feeling Suri is having regarding her textbooks. Suri would be able to focus more on her schoolwork and would not have to worry about having enough money for all the textbooks for her current and future courses. For Suri the benefits of uploading her course work on the website for money is more appealing or beneficial for her.

Engaging in unethical behavior has its own set of risks. Many colleges and universities have codes of conduct and policies in place to hold students to certain standards. This can be found by doing a simple search on google of various universities for their codes and policies. For example, Ball State University has a Code of Student Rights and Conduct. This code is also compromised of various policies and standards that as a student of Ball State, we agree to abide by. One of the Policies is the Information Technology Users Policy written by the Office of Information Security Services (2019 pgs. 2-4). This policy covers the fact that a student should not utilize university resources for financial gain. Doing this can result in consequences such as suspended privileges or complete loss of privileges, possible expulsion, and depending on the severity of the violation possible State or Federal level prosecution. This is exactly what Suri is doing by uploading her coursework to the internet for money in return. Does the benefit of partaking in this unethical act outweigh the severity of the consequences? Suri should re-think her options before taking part in her money-making solution.

There are other ethical actions that Suri could make and still get the same benefit or end result as her unethical decision. Suri should apply for Financial Aid. If Suri qualifies for aid she would be better suited to be able to cover the costs of her courses and textbooks therefore eliminating being overwhelmed with worrying about money. Even if Suri does not qualify for aid she may qualify for a Higher Education Loan that would allow her to defer paying on it until she graduates. After she graduates, she would have a period of time that she would not have to make a payment and many times is able to consolidate multiple loans into one payment over the course of a time period. Suri could check with the university library as well to see if her textbooks are there and available for her to utilize and checkout. Suri could also see if her employer would be able to give her extra hours to pick up to help offset the costs of college.

When faced with an ethical dilemma there is a good and a bad option. This does not mean that the end results are going to be good or bad, it means that your decision may affect you morally in a negative way. Everyone has behaved unethically at some point in their life and usually come around to harbor some sort of regrets. There is better way to handle a situation that may lead someone to making an unethical decision. Sometimes it just takes someone else to guide you in that direction.

References

1. Ball State University Office of Information Security Services. (2019). Information Technology Users’ Privileges and Responsibilities. Ball State University. Pgs 2-4. Retrieved January 7, 2020 https://ballstate.policytech.com/dotNet/documents/?docid=1652&public=true
2. Dilemma. (n.d.). in Merriam-Webster.com dictionary. Retrieved January 7, 2020 from https://www.merriam-webster.com/
3. Ethics. (n.d.) in Merriam-Webster.com dictionary. Retrieved January 7, 2020, from https://www.merriam-webster.com/