Western Team Earns Second Place at Ethics Case Competition

In a challenge that tested their ethical reasoning and presentation skills, a team of four Western Colorado University students placed second at the 2025 UCCS Ethics Initiative Case Competition on November 8.

Aric Olson, Ella Debow, Rorie Wiedow, and Skylee Barry represented Western in the competition, which challenges students from across Colorado to analyze a complex ethical business dilemma and present their recommendations to a panel of judges.

The Case Competition is an annual event for the members of the Southern Colorado Ethics Consortium, which includes Adams State, CSU Pueblo, Fort Lewis, Lamar Community College, Odyssey Early College and Career, Otero Community College, Pikes Peak State College, University of Colorado Colorado Springs (UCCS), which hosts the event, the U.S. Air Force Academy, and Western.

Preparation for the event begins in the fall with a two-week Ethics Boot Camp, where students break up into teams to analyze and navigate scenarios similar to those they’ll see in the competition. The team’s co-mentors, professors CJ Clugston and Dennis Dunivan, offer feedback on the teams’ presentations, and a panel of faculty judges chooses the winners. The top two teams went on to represent Western at the Case Competition.

After a strong performance at the competition last year, with one first-place finish and a second team placing in the top five, expectations were high. And the Mountaineer teams rose to the challenge to bring home a second-place finish.

“The consistency of Western’s performance speaks to a culture where business ethics are highly valued,” said Dr. Dennis Dunivan, director of Western’s Energy Management program and one of the team’s two mentors. “These students are learning how to make hard decisions—and how to defend those decisions with integrity.”

Professor Dunivan has extensive experience in the realm of business ethics, including an honorarium from Georgetown University for Teaching Professional Business Ethics, an Emerging Scholar Award from the Society for Business Ethics, and serving as a reviewer for the Business and Professional Ethics Journal.

“Ethics education is critical for business students,” Dunivan said, “because it prepares students to lead with integrity in complex, real-world environments where the right decision isn’t always the easiest or most profitable one.”

The UCCS Ethics Initiative was formerly known as The Daniels Fund Ethics Initiative, which began in 2016, provides students with a framework for making ethical decisions and then provides a platform to apply that framework to real-world dilemmas.

“An ethical dilemma can be a career-defining moment,” Clugston said. “This competition immerses students in scenarios that mirror actual business challenges, preparing them for complex moral decisions they’ll face after graduation.”