University students from every campus, including students from four other universities, attended the second annual Student Leadership Conference Sunday at the Rutgers Student Center on the College Avenue campus.
The conference - a student-run event - featured a keynote speaker, smaller workshops and panel discussions with professionals on the topic of ethics in leadership. The theme this year was "Follow the Ethical Road."
The event was funded primarily by the Center for Organizational Development and Leadership at Rutgers University, along with private grants.
"The goal is to figure out where the gap is in what we know about leadership, and create a conference for Rutgers and national students," said Michael Simone, a Livingston College student and one of the student conference planners.
Program coordinators Hui-Min Kuo, a communication lecturer, and Dr. Brent Ruben, a communication professor, oversaw the planning of the conference.
Last fall semester, a class in the department of communication, called "Leadership in Groups and Organizations," wrote a 100-page proposal for this year's event to take place. The students implemented the proposal this spring session.
"I'm just glad the turnout was good during the Dance Marathon," said student planner Monique Waters, a Douglass College senior.
Waters had concerns that Dance Marathon - held nearby in the College Avenue Gym - would detract from the conference's attendance.
Up until the morning of the event, 182 people registered through the conference's Web site. Not all who registered attended, but organizers were still pleased with the turnout, calling the conference a success.
Three students from the University of Texas at Austin flew in for the conference, including senior Katie Tran.
"I enjoyed hearing professionals speak about their views on ethics in corporations," Tran said.
She said she would have also been interested in hearing a discussion about ethics in the health care industry at the conference.
Vanessa Greer, a district sales manager of the Philip Morris USA Company, spoke on the afternoon's second panel, along with United States Drug Enforcement Administration Special Agent Nicholas Calleo, a Rutgers-Newark graduate.
"It was wonderful," Calleo said. "[The conference] gives DEA a chance to reach out to students. Ethics and leadership are extremely important in law enforcement, in gaining the trust and support of the public."
Other universities in attendance included The College of New Jersey, the University of Delaware and Montclair State University.
Douglass College senior Courtney Raphael drew positives and negatives from the conference's first half. Raphael said she was looking to hear the corporate perspective on ethics in the second panel.
"The keynote speaker was very animated, eloquent in getting his point across," Raphael said.
She also mentioned one speaker, Dr. Geoffrey Tumlin from the University of Texas at Austin, and his emphasis on points such as "Don't confuse an ethical choice with an ethical dilemma" and "People matter, and people change," in regards to running a business.
Raphael took part in a workshop that focused on students evaluating their leadership style from the results of the widely used Myers-Briggs typology test - a test that yields a four-letter code to describe one's personality.
"I thought it was great for understanding how personality affects leadership style," she said.
Livingston College sophomore Shazim Hasan said he heard about and registered for the conference through Phi Beta Lambda, a business organization at the University.
Walgreens' District Pharmacy Supervisor Dr. John Colaizzi Jr. was the last presenter of the day. His father, John Colaizzi, is currently dean of the Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy.
"When you get a real life corporate perspective on ethics, it's better than anything you can get from a textbook," Colaizzi Jr. said of the conference's benefits.
He stressed to his audience the importance of always doing the right thing in business, or "following true north" - ethically speaking - and how this practice has led to his company's great success.
Colaizzi Jr., a graduate of the University's class of 2002, during his speech reflected on how the University times have changed.
"I was here when the football team lost to West Virginia 87-7," he said. "Now, I can't even get tickets."
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