The Publics Relations Society of America River Cities Chapter presented a lecture on ethics in public relations Friday in the Shawkey Room in the student center. The guest speaker was Marshall University professor Christopher Swindell.

September is ethics month for the PRSA organization. PRSA is a national organization of practitioners and scholars in the public relations discipline who have agreed to abide by a code of ethics in regard to how they operate within their roles as practitioners.

“It benefited my attending this meeting because, as a future Public Relations practitioner, I had the opportunity to hear from many perspectives from students to professionals on how ethics plays a key role for future business engagements and developing relationships,” said Allyson Carr, senior public relations major.

“PRSA provides a great opportunity to network within some of your peers in the region and a great grounding board for getting together and talking about issues your organization is dealing with,” said Terry Hapney, chapter president and associate professor of public relations at Marshall University.

Karima Neghmouche, senior publics relations major, expressed her praise for the people in attendance in regard to how they were able to give personal testimonies from their work experience in relation to ethics.

“It helps to see professionals who are in the field and have worked in the field for a long time, possibly 20 years or more, and they can still gain knowledge from a lecture and apply the material covered in today’s lecture to situations they have dealt with,” Neghmouche said.

Swindell emphasized in the lecture how often ethics play a role in decision making and how important it is to practice your ethics on a daily basis.

“I wanted to stress the importance of ethics to a point that it is not just celebrated once a year, rather everyday, so you can formulate your own code of ethics in which you can operate by,” Swindell said.

Kaylin Adkins, owner of Hour Glass Omnimedia, graduated from Marshall University with a degree in public relations in 2010. Early in her professional career, she said she was faced with an ethical dilemma.

“When I was 22 and just graduated from Marshall University, I had to make an ethical decision in terms of a local non-profit,” Adkins said. “The topics covered today and in the classes I was enrolled in apply in the real world. I’ve been practicing public relations for about seven years and you are going to have to be put on the line for certain ethical situations. Most of the time you will know in your heart whether you are making the right decision.”