Jeffrey L. Seglin's Blog, page 29

Institutions that have closed their doors need our help

Last summer, the woman I'd eat bees for and I took our oldest grandson, now a junior in college, to Cooperstown, New York. He'd already been to the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts, and the Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, but he'd never been to the Baseball Hall of Fame.
A rabid sports fan, our grandson had wanted to get to Cooperstown for years, but timing and schedules never aligned. This was to be the summer to make it happen. Of course, this was also the summer he was heading to Ft. Benning for paratrooper school as part of his U.S. Army ROTC training, so scheduling was still going to be a challenge. Nevertheless, we persisted and it happened.
My wife made sure we had a family membership to the Hall and found lodging in an old motel along the banks of Otsego Lake on the way into town. As luck would have it, it was the week leading up to induction weekend when Mariano Rivera, Mike Mussina, Edgar Martinez and Roy Halladay would find their plaques along other baseball legends.
The Hall itself was as magical as it was to me when I first visited as a child. I'm not nearly the sports fan my grandson is, but baseball has always been the one true sport to me. We saw the inductees milling about, as well as Pete Rose (not a Hall of Famer) and other former major leaguers signing autographs in memorabilia shops along Main Street. We ate dinner in a small Italian restaurant next to Daryl Strawberry at one table and the late Roy Halladay's family at another.
The renewal notice for our family member arrived this week. Given that the Hall of Fame buildings are closed "in accordance with pandemic precautions" it is unlikely we will be visiting again any time soon. Our decision was whether to let our membership lapse and pick it up again when the Hall's doors once again open to the public.
It's a decision that many of us face. Do we keep paying membership fees to the now shuttered art museum? Or keep up a subscription to the print edition of our local newspaper when we're trying to limit outside deliveries to the house? Do we consider subscribing to a series of musical events a year out not knowing whether they will have to be rescheduled?
For many families, such memberships are a luxury. We recognize how fortunate we are to be able to choose to belong to the Baseball Hall of Fame and a few arts organizations and to attend musical or theatrical events. But since we can't visit these places now, should we let our memberships lapse?
A family's first priority should be to make sure they use their resources to keep their families safe, housed and fed. Looking out for neighbors in need is right up there on the list.
But continuing to support those organizations that spark joy in us and others even when their doors are temporarily shuttered seems the right thing to do. Our membership to Cooperstown is renewed along with our hope to have another magical visit there. 
Jeffrey L. Seglin, author of  The Simple Art of Business Etiquette: How to Rise to the Top by Playing Nice ," is a senior lecturer in public policy and director of the communications program at Harvard's Kennedy School. 
Follow him on Twitter: @jseglin 
Do you have ethical questions that you need answered? Send them to rightthing@comcast.net. 
(c) 2020 JEFFREY L. SEGLIN. Distributed by TRIBUNE CONTENT AGENCY, LLC.

Reader bugged by newspaper ad

Subscribers to the print edition of a large newspaper in a Northeastern city continue to get their newspapers delivered early every morning, wrapped in a plastic bag and tossed toward their front doors.
"I'm old school," writes a reader we're calling Mary when it's pointed out to her that she could read a facsimile of her morning newspaper online. "I like getting the physical paper and spreading it out to read on the kitchen table while I have my morning coffee."
Mary also appreciates that the newspaper publisher has not furloughed its delivery people, placing them among the ranks of workers who have lost their jobs during the pandemic.
What Mary doesn't appreciate are the full-page advertisements that have been running every day for the past several weeks from a local car dealer. The ads are innocuous enough. The dealership owner's face is pasted up top with a message to loyal customers. In the ad, the dealer points out that while the showrooms are closed because of a mandate by the state's governor, the service departments are all open and the website is updated regularly.
"What a waste of money," Mary writes. "Anyone who looks at his website or calls the dealer would know the service department was open." She believes the money would be better spent to continue paying salespeople whose jobs might be on hold while the showroom is closed. Or to donate the money spent to any number of efforts being made to support victims of COVID-19 or the caregivers tending to them.
"It just seems wrong for him to be touting his company now," she writes. "If he wants to show support to his loyal customers, he should support the customers and the community affected by the virus."
She also writes that she has never purchased a car from his dealership so she understands that the ads might not be directed at her. "Still, it's a waste," she writes. "And it bugs me."
Mary raises an interesting point. It would be good to consider how the dealership owner might have put his resources to the best use while his showrooms are closed. It's likely, however, that he has made this calculation.
And his full-page advertisements are not simply self-serving. For one thing, the revenue from the advertisements help fund the newspaper Mary enjoys receiving every morning. These revenues also help ensure that there are enough funds to continue paying her longtime delivery person.
If Mary had checked the dealership's website, she would note that it also has helped and continues to support several area hospitals that are now on the front lines of treatment coronavirus patients, as well as dozens of community organizations.
Sure, it would be nice to be able to tell any company owner what to do with his money. The newspaper advertisements might bug Mary, but the right thing is to determine if the good the dealership owner does outweighs any slight irritation she may face as she unfolds her newspaper across her table every morning.
That's Mary's call, but it strikes me there is more good here than bad. 
Jeffrey L. Seglin, author of  The Simple Art of Business Etiquette: How to Rise to the Top by Playing Nice ," is a senior lecturer in public policy and director of the communications program at Harvard's Kennedy School. 
Follow him on Twitter: @jseglin 
Do you have ethical questions that you need answered? Send them to rightthing@comcast.net. 
c) 2020 JEFFREY L. SEGLIN. Distributed by TRIBUNE CONTENT AGENCY, LLC.

We do what we can to be decent

Every morning since March 16, I have posted a poem or a portion of a poem to Twitter and Facebook. There was nothing magical about choosing March 16 as the day on which to start these posts, other than that it was the first day that I and my colleagues had been instructed via email in boldface type to "shift to remote work only."
So, we shifted. And with that shift, many of us began to look for ways to bring some sense of normalcy to our lives in what clearly are not normal times. We set up at home to work remotely recognizing that many others did not have the luxury to do so.
There was no remote for doctors, nurses, police, fire fighters, EMTs and other first responders who continued to do their jobs. The same is true for the grocery store workers who continued to stock shelves and keep their doors open. And the package and mail deliverers who never stopped. There was also no remote work for the millions of people who suddenly found themselves out of work as companies put operations on hold and furloughed employees.
For those of us who are more fortunate and can try our best to do remote work, we still look for ways to bring normalcy to our lives. For me, some of this has been looking to the words of others whose poetry of hope, struggle, kindness, tragedy, love, neglect and triumph continues to direct a focus on the continued struggle each of us faces to try do good even when the obstacles are many.
There are many challenges to being housebound, though even more to being homeless during a time when public health offices are trying to dampen the spread of disease. Still, those of us fortunate enough to have a roof over our heads look to find ways to build a routine so that we don't lose hours or days by clicking on the latest news or statistics.
Some of us look for ways to create structure for our kids or to find ways to stay connected to elderly relatives we refrain from visiting in person.
We look for ways not to engage in online tiffs with those who believe everyone is overreacting or with those who engage in pandemic shaming of people who aren't self-distancing the way they think they should.
We look for ways to help those who need shelter or groceries or face masks. And we stand on our porches at 7 p.m. every Friday night to applaud all of those people who continue to help our neighbors who have contracted the disease. For those of you looking for any number of ways to help others during the pandemic, CNN has put together a guide to giving and getting help: www.cnn.com/interactive/2020/health/coronavirus-how-to-help/.
All these things are the right thing to do.
Among other things, I continue to return to the poets every morning. And, like Billy Collins in his poem "Nostalgia," I'm reminded "a little about the future, that place where people are doing a dance we cannot imagine, a dance whose name we can only guess."
Jeffrey L. Seglin, author of The Simple Art of Business Etiquette: How to Rise to the Top by Playing Nice ," is a senior lecturer in public policy and director of the communications program at Harvard's Kennedy School. 
Follow him on Twitter: @jseglin 
Do you have ethical questions that you need answered? Send them to rightthing@comcast.net. 
c) 2020 JEFFREY L. SEGLIN. Distributed by TRIBUNE CONTENT AGENCY, LLC.

Patience, planning ahead needed right now

We are all hunkered down. Or if not all of us are yet, we should be. But even as most of us remain firmly in place, all sorts of people are venturing out in an often-heroic effort to support others in need.
The rest of us spend our days working from home, reaching out to family, improving the stock share price of any number of online video conferencing services, and trying to bring some sense of normalcy to what are not normal times. Occasionally, we assess what we have in stock: food, toiletries, medicine, books and what we might need more of. We then reassess to determine what we really need rather than what in more mobile times would be nice to have.
Groceries seem a real need. But even occasional trips to the grocery store seem fraught. When some markets advertise early morning hours specifically for shoppers older than 60, a demographic more susceptible to the ravages of coronavirus, online chat boards are filled with advice that because those early mornings tend to be packed with old people, the best time to go is soon after their special hours end. Other markets are offering curbside pickup after an order is called in.
Many don't feel safe venturing out at all. An old friend (older than I am) sings the praises of a woman he's never met whom he paid to deliver $400 worth of groceries to his garage. "I've never actually met her, but I am ready to adopt her," he writes.
But another reader finds herself in a quandary.
"My husband and I are in high-risk categories for Covid-19," she writes. She suffers from asthma, he from a heart condition. "We are avoiding setting foot in supermarkets or other stores." Where they live, however, curbside pickup is not an option.
"Is it OK to accept offers to pick up groceries by friends who are, because of age, also at high risk?" she asks. "I don't think they should be taking chances either. I'm risk averse, and they are not."
If she truly believes it is wrong to ask her friends to do a task she herself would not do, then the right thing is not to ask them. Based on all the available information they have, her friends are right to decide for themselves how they will acquire their groceries.
They may not be able to get groceries as quickly as they'd like or as quickly as they might if they ventured out themselves or if friends dropped stuff off, but they have options if they are willing to wait a few days. Last I checked, Costco's two-day delivery was taking five to six days. Amazon Prime delivery windows for groceries from Whole Foods were several days out from the time of order as well. Peapod, another delivery service seemed to have a shorter turnaround time, but still required patience.
Patience and safety over immediacy seems prudent and the right thing to do.
Yes, we should not ask others to do what we wouldn't do ourselves out of safety concerns. We might also find these curious times call for doing careful assessments of what we really need and then planning ahead accordingly. 
Jeffrey L. Seglin, author of  The Right Thing: Conscience, Profit and Personal Responsibility in Today's Business and The Good, the Bad, and Your Business: Choosing Right When Ethical Dilemmas Pull You Apart, is a senior lecturer in public policy and director of the communications program at  Harvard's Kennedy School . 
Follow him on Twitter: @jseglin 
Do you have ethical questions that you need answered? Send them to rightthing@comcast.net. 
(c) 2020 JEFFREY L. SEGLIN. Distributed by TRIBUNE CONTENT AGENCY, LLC.

Amid crisis, try not to be consumed by smaller things

Downtowns are turning into ghost towns as people take shelter in their homes to avoid the risk of spreading coronavirus.
Students are doing coursework online. Therapists are using telehealth to meet with clients. Architects are videoconferencing with clients from the comfort or clutter of their dining room.
Without planning for it, we have become a network of virtual communities leaving our downtowns as quiet as if we'd all paused for a moment of silence that has lasted weeks that feel like months.
As our collective attention turns toward trying to help slow the spread of the virus by heeding the advice of experts, many of us have tried to set up shop at home. As we do so, we often find ourselves without the same small luxuries we took for granted at the office.
When we needed paper to fill the printer, it was there ready for us to grab. The same goes for notepads, pens, paper clips, staples, hand sanitizer, and, what I find myself using more of than ever, Post-It notes. The handwritten reminders posted to the rim of my computer monitor to remind me of things not to forget during a videoconference are now layered several deep.
As we are consumed by larger concerns over loved ones living in nursing homes and assisted living centers whom we cannot embrace right now because of cautious visitation policies or even more so over the growing number of people who have contracted the virus, we also find ourselves consumed by lesser, yet still important concerns.
Will our toddlers be OK when we need to steal away to take a business call? Will we and our neighbors be able to make it to the grocery store or to find a delivery service to make sure we can put food on the table? Will we be able to get a care package of home-baked goods mailed to our college student stranded in his off-campus apartment or to our service member on the base?
In light of the gravity of our current public health crisis, worrying about the small stuff can feel irrelevant, even petty. But as we continue to try to carry on as if everything were normal, the small stuff creeps in. Perhaps it does so as a coping mechanism to keep from being consumed by so much we don't know about how all of this will play out.
We worry whether we'll get in trouble with our boss because we took the bottle of hand sanitizer home from our for-now shuttered office knowing it would be difficult to find some to purchase. We worry about whether we should put more time into looking more professional for an upcoming video call. We grow concerned that we are not doing enough to keep our school-age child up to date with her homework. We just worry.
It's OK to worry. But when we've all been called on to radically adjust to our daily personal and professional lives in an effort to stave off the potentially devastating effects of a disease we don't yet fully understand, the right thing is for each of us to give ourselves and others a little break.
If we're all doing our small part to try to help repair the world (Tikkun Olam and all that), we can afford for now to forgive ourselves for some of the smaller stuff. 
Jeffrey L. Seglin, author of  The Right Thing: Conscience, Profit and Personal Responsibility in Today's Business and The Good, the Bad, and Your Business: Choosing Right When Ethical Dilemmas Pull You Apart, is a senior lecturer in public policy and director of the communications program at  Harvard's Kennedy School . 
Follow him on Twitter: @jseglin 
Do you have ethical questions that you need answered? Send them to rightthing@comcast.net. 
(c) 2020 JEFFREY L. SEGLIN. Distributed by TRIBUNE CONTENT AGENCY, LLC.

In frightening times, let's avoid mocking others

Nearly as soon as the announcements began that many college classes were going to be moving from in-person to online for the rest of the semester to increase social distancing and ideally lessen the spread of COVID-19, the tweets, memes and social media posts began.
The student variety poked fun at teachers clumsy with technology. The teacher variety bemoaned inattentive students. It's hard to know if any of the events recounted really happened or how severe they really were if they did. More importantly, while a good laugh is important during tense times, it's hard to know if such events really mattered.
These are extraordinary times, and in these exceptional times it seems a good bet that most teachers and most students are working hard to try to figure out how to continue working together to give and receive the best education they can.
For many college kids heading into spring break, good reason caused them to rethink their travel plans, and instead many headed home to be with family. For seniors it was likely they would not be having an in-person commencement ceremony and the next time they saw many of the friends that they'd spent the past four years with on campus would likely be months or years away, if ever. Nevertheless, in spite of sadness brought on by disappointment, most students took the warnings of public health experts seriously and recognized there was a greater good at stake.
For many college professors, instead of using spring break to catch up on a writing or research project or to spend time with family, dedication to wanting to deliver what they could to their students for the rest of the semester refocused their attention to learning new online platforms to connect with students and to tearing apart and revamping teaching plans so they had a hope of working in a virtual setting.
At my school, one professor spearheaded an effort for him and other professors to offer several one-hour voluntary online classes as a way of keeping the students connected during spring break and giving teachers and students a chance to work out some kinks in transitioning from in-person to online. At least 40 classes were offered. Hundreds of students participated throughout the week. Sure, some professors forgot to turn off cellphones and some students could be seen making a cup of tea in their kitchens, but that didn't slow anyone down.
As the second half of the spring semester gears up for most students and teachers, there surely will be more snark posted and shared among both groups. If it helps let off steam, fine. But it would be wrong to allow such snark to distract from how massive the effort is by students and teachers to keep connected and to keep learning from one another.
In the book and movie, Bang the Drum Slowly, there's this great line: "From here on in, I rag nobody." No more making fun of those whose stories or struggles you might not truly understand for the sake of a laugh.
Perhaps adopting that sentiment is the right thing to do in such extraordinary times, not just for college students and their professors, but for all of us. 
Jeffrey L. Seglin, author of  The Right Thing: Conscience, Profit and Personal Responsibility in Today's Business and The Good, the Bad, and Your Business: Choosing Right When Ethical Dilemmas Pull You Apart, is a senior lecturer in public policy and director of the communications program at  Harvard's Kennedy School . 
Follow him on Twitter: @jseglin 
Do you have ethical questions that you need answered? Send them to rightthing@comcast.net. 
(c) 2020 JEFFREY L. SEGLIN. Distributed by TRIBUNE CONTENT AGENCY, LLC.

Being kind, taking care of others is even more important now

Two things that happened last week reminded me of the capacity of people to do the right thing even while experiencing stress and uncertainty.
Late in the week as it became clear to me that flying to take care of some family business bordered on selfish and irresponsible given the rising concern about the coronavirus (COVID-19), I decided to cancel my flight.
My attempts to cancel my ticket online were met with a message informing me that I had to call Delta Air Lines directly to attempt the cancellation. Call waiting times were estimated to be up to six hours, so I called, turned on the speaker and continued working at my desk while waiting for someone to answer. After about an hour, a customer service representative named Krissy picked up the phone.
The connection was fuzzy, so Krissy confirmed my number, hung up and called back within seconds. Almost immediately we were disconnected. She called back again. This time, I could hear her shout to a colleague "Are we down," but she apparently couldn't hear me. Twice more she called and we got disconnected. But Krissy tenaciously stayed at it, we talked, and she put through the credit without question.
Later that day, while I was in a meeting with a student shortly before she and all students were to leave campus for the rest of the semester because of the coronavirus, calls kept coming in on my cell phone from a number I didn't recognize. Initially, I ignored the calls, but on the fourth successive try, I answered the phone and was greeted by the property manager of an assisted living facility I had made plans to visit.
Tescia was apologetic about telling me that her facility had moved to limit all visitation from outsiders and that they wouldn't be able to accommodate my visit. She continued to be apologetic, but I told her I understood perfectly. She and I then exchanged words of concern for one another's day in dealing with rapidly developing plans that would affect both our and many of our colleague's work.
While it would be nice to believe that every customer service provider would be as accommodating as possible, we all have had experiences where this has not been the case. Both Krissy and Tescia were exceptional in showing kindness, patience and tenacity during what must have been a particularly exhausting and tension-filled day for each of them.
Almost every email I've received from administrators or colleagues at the university where I work (and there have been many emails) has ended with some variation of the sentiment: Please continue to take care of yourself and others.
During times of crisis when people grow exhausted, tense and sometimes short-tempered over the uncertainty of what's to come, such moments of kindness can be calming.
Whatever you happen to be doing, wherever you happen to be living or working from, please continue to take care of yourself and others. It's the right thing to do.
The Centers for Disease Control advice on preparing to respond to Coronavirus (COVID-19) can be found at https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/home/index.html. Harvard Medical School's online Coronavirus Resource Center is here at https://www.health.harvard.edu/diseases-and-conditions/coronavirus-resource-center. 
Jeffrey L. Seglin, author of  The Right Thing: Conscience, Profit and Personal Responsibility in Today's Business and The Good, the Bad, and Your Business: Choosing Right When Ethical Dilemmas Pull You Apart, is a senior lecturer in public policy and director of the communications program at  Harvard's Kennedy School . 
Follow him on Twitter: @jseglin 
Do you have ethical questions that you need answered? Send them to rightthing@comcast.net. 
(c) 2020 JEFFREY L. SEGLIN. Distributed by TRIBUNE CONTENT AGENCY, LLC.

No, it's not right to pretend to be someone else

Alice has been caring for her ailing father for many years. Her father has been a widower for almost 30 years and lived alone in an assisted living apartment for much of that time. Alice's care involved helping him find and get settled in his apartment, visiting him regularly, and as his health deteriorated, she found a home care aid to pay him regular visits. She also helped manage his finances.
Now in his 90s and legally blind, Alice's father has needed more care and more help with paying bills, filing taxes and generally getting around. One of the areas that Alice writes that she dreads talking to him about is what his wishes are after he dies. Nevertheless, she persists.
Alice has spoken to her father about what he would like for a funeral and service, whether he would like to be cremated and where he would like to be buried. Almost everything seemed settled, when on one visit her father mentioned to her that he had a small life insurance policy she had never heard about before. In his desk, he had a handwritten note with the name of the government agency which he believed held the policy along with his identification number.
He had no recollection and there was no notation of how much the life insurance policy was for, but he wanted Alice to check.
Alice called, and an agent got on the line. Alice told the agent what she was after and gave him her father's identification information. She was told that there was no record of her having her father's power of attorney and that they could not release the information without his permission. She would have to request forms from the agency that she could fill out and return establishing that she did have power of attorney and then she could call and get the information.
"That's going to take more time," writes Alice, observing that all she wants to do is confirm the policy and the amount, not to try to cash it in. "I could easily have my husband call and say he was my father since we have all the necessary information. They would never know."
Alice wants to know if it would be wrong to try this tactic to save time getting the information her father wants.
Of course, it would be wrong. Alice may fear that her father's health is failing enough that by the time she went through the proper steps and got the information, her father would no longer be around, but engaging in fraud for the sake of expediency is never a good idea.
The right thing is for Alice to file whatever forms she needs to be able to access the information. She's already doing the right thing by providing her father with love and support as it becomes more challenging for him to do it for himself. 
Jeffrey L. Seglin, author of  The Right Thing: Conscience, Profit and Personal Responsibility in Today's Business and The Good, the Bad, and Your Business: Choosing Right When Ethical Dilemmas Pull You Apart, is a senior lecturer in public policy and director of the communications program at  Harvard's Kennedy School . 
Follow him on Twitter: @jseglin 
Do you have ethical questions that you need answered? Send them to rightthing@comcast.net. 
(c) 2020 JEFFREY L. SEGLIN. Distributed by TRIBUNE CONTENT AGENCY, LLC.

Is It Wrong Not to Vote?

Nov. 3 will mark the first time each of my oldest grandchildren will be old enough to vote in a U.S. presidential election. For them, it will not be a matter of walking to their local polling place on Election Day or finding one that enables them to vote early. The older grandchild is a junior at one university, the younger is at a different university, and each of them lives out of state. If they want to vote, they will have to request, fill out and return an absentee ballot.
Voting is a right, but only 55.7 percent of eligible voters voted in the 2016 presidential election, up slightly from 2012 but down significantly from 2008. There is no legal requirement that any eligible voter must vote. But is it wrong not to?
It's not exactly rocket science to figure out how to vote with an absentee ballot, but it does take some effort. College students and others who will be away from where they are registered to vote must make an effort to register to vote in time and then request an absentee ballot in time. Each state handles registration and absentee voting in its own way. But the federal-government-run website www.vote.govmakes figuring out how to register and vote by absentee ballot relatively simple.
In September 2018, reporter Max Smith wrote on the WTOP News website that a focus group conducted in Fairfax County, Virginia, earlier that year "found many college students who have gotten an absentee ballot simply fail to send it back because a U.S. Postal Service stamp seems to be a foreign concept to them."
Apparently, according to the focus group at least, many college students simply gave up on returning their absentee ballots because they couldn't find a stamp. When I first read that piece, I began occasionally tweeting entreatments for people to vote with the hashtag #oldguywithstamps, reminding college students and others that old people like me typically carry postage stamps with them. They are also available at post offices, at Walmart, on Amazon.com and on other sites. As Ashley Collman reported in Business Insider, the post office will mail an absentee ballot even if it doesn't have postage on it and "charge the local election board."
One college student took me up on an offer of a stamp to help her send her absentee ballot into her state's election board. After affixing the stamp, she asked, "Do you know where I can mail this?" I pointed out a post office two blocks away and a mailbox across the street.
Still, she voted like each of my grandsons plan to do by absentee ballot this year. They've already voted absentee in the primary elections.
None of them were obligated to vote. Neither are you.
But voting enables us to choose those who will become the leaders of our government. Voting provides each eligible citizen a voice in how policies may be shaped that affect our daily lives and those of others. Voting is an affirmation that democracy works best with an informed, engaged electorate.
While it is not illegal not to vote, voting is the right thing to do. 
Jeffrey L. Seglin, author of  The Right Thing: Conscience, Profit and Personal Responsibility in Today's Business and The Good, the Bad, and Your Business: Choosing Right When Ethical Dilemmas Pull You Apart, is a senior lecturer in public policy and director of the communications program at  Harvard's Kennedy School . 
Follow him on Twitter: @jseglin 
Do you have ethical questions that you need answered? Send them to rightthing@comcast.net. 
(c) 2020 JEFFREY L. SEGLIN. Distributed by TRIBUNE CONTENT AGENCY, LLC.

College student doing nothing wrong by going for free food

A note from a college student we're calling Toby arrived recently. It came shortly after the spring semester began and Toby mentioned that he always enjoys this time of the academic year because a lot of organizations on campus have events to recruit new members.
Toby indicates he's not much of a joiner, but he enjoys socializing at the events. Mostly, however, he likes attending the events that serve the best food. Pizza seems to be a staple, but some organizations offer sandwiches and even an occasional buffet spread of hot food. Apparently on Toby's campus, the buffalo chicken wraps are to die for.
But in spite of consuming as much free food at these events as he cares to, Toby writes that he has no intention of joining any of the organizations.
When he was trying to convince a classmate to go to one of the events with him, the classmate responded that he didn't have any interest in the organization. "That's OK," Toby writes that he told him. "I don't either. I go for the free food."
Toby's friend questioned whether Toby was right to consume the food when he knew he wasn't interested in the organizations.
"I don't think there's anything wrong with it," Toby writes. "Free food is offered and I like free food." He wants to know if his friend is right and he is wrong.
College campuses produce a lot of food. A lot of it goes wasted. Some estimates put the waste in the millions of pounds a year. Organizations like the Food Recovery Network have made strides to try to help campuses cut down on such waste and colleges have made their own efforts.
Students have even done their part as well, even if informally. At the college where I teach, I know of at least two WhatsApp groups that have been set up to notify students when food is leftover on campus from an event. There's also a listserv that serves the same purpose.
It's pretty clear that the students swooping in to partake of leftovers weren't part of the group for whom the food was originally intended. But their consumption of leftover food does serve the purpose of cutting down on waste and providing fuel for students, often on a budget, to study.
Toby's case is a bit different because he goes to the events where he eats the food. The organization members might assume he is a prospect for their group. Toby writes that he never tells any of the organizations that he plans to join as a way to get food.
"They invite everyone on campus who's interested," he writes. "I'm interested, but mostly for the food."
Toby is doing the right thing by not lying about his intentions to join any organization he has no plans to join. If his consumption has the added benefit of cutting down on any leftover food waste, all the better. His practice may not serve the intentions organizations have to recruit new members, but who knows? He might come across a group he actually wants to join.
And besides the buffalo chicken wraps are to die for. 
Jeffrey L. Seglin, author of  The Right Thing: Conscience, Profit and Personal Responsibility in Today's Business and The Good, the Bad, and Your Business: Choosing Right When Ethical Dilemmas Pull You Apart, is a senior lecturer in public policy and director of the communications program at  Harvard's Kennedy School . 
Follow him on Twitter: @jseglin 
Do you have ethical questions that you need answered? Send them to rightthing@comcast.net. 
(c) 2020 JEFFREY L. SEGLIN. Distributed by TRIBUNE CONTENT AGENCY, LLC.