A year ago, a contemporary ethics conference might have seemed as relevant as a Cade McNown jersey or Beta VCR.

However, with corporate controversies all over the news and public confidence badly shaken, timing couldn’t be better for the inaugural Contemporary Ethics Conference.

“We actually planned the conference over a year ago,” said conference coordinator Mylan Engel, also a philosophy professor at NIU. “We think it’s important to know that people in higher education take ethics seriously. However, with all the scandals this summer, ethics has taken central stage in the national news and the conference is even more timely.”

The free three-day conference, sponsored by NIU’s ethics consortium, will examine ethical questions in regards to corporate America, animal experimentation and Internet legal principles. Each event will be held at Barsema Hall’s Dennis Barsema Auditorium.

The festivities begin at 7 to 9 p.m. today with a panel discussion on business ethics. Six NIU accountancy professors will examine recent corporate scandals and current financial practices.

Greg Carnes, chair of NIU’s accountancy department, will be among those leading the discussion.

“I would imagine the recent scandals, regarding places like Enron and WorldCom, would be the hot topics,” he said. “We will also be talking about how to minimize the chances of these types of things happening again.”

Carnes said there are some misconceptions about the corporate world.

“I think that people don’t understand how complex and multi-faceted the working environments out there can be,” he said. “I think what happened was those who were given responsibilities didn’t fulfill them.”

From 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. Friday, there will be a debate on the virtues of animal experimentation. Ray Greek, president of Americans for Medical Advancement, will speak out against the practice, while Carl Cohen a University of Michigan philosophy professor, will argue its benefits.

“I think anyone who is in a field that requires animal experimentation would find the debate quite interesting,” Engel said.

Clifford Christians, author and University of Illinois professor, will delve into issues confronting the ever-growing Internet from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Saturday.

“I think anyone who is concerned about understanding the direction of Internet technology and how will it benefit society should come,” Christians said in a phone interview.

This is a critical time in determining the Internet’s future, he said.

“The question is whether Internet technology can be understood from the perspective of justice,” he said. “The issue is whether the principles of ethics we have developed for past technologies like TV can be applied to this newer technology.”

Christians said he believes that old principles can indeed be applied to new technologies.

“My argument will be is the principle of justice is what we typically use to understand social and political institutions,” he said. “And since the Internet is a social institution, we can use the same old classic principle of justice to understand new medias.”

Besides the three main events, presentations by traveling scholars will address such topics as environmental ethics and criminal justice.

“I think it’s a remarkable group of scholars to be attending an inaugural conference in any field,” Engel said.

For information on planned festivities, call 753-5200 or visit http://sun.soci.niu.edu/~phildept/niec/prog2002b.html.