2007 Excellence through Ethics Essay Contest Scenario
 

Roland is a top student among sophomore Computer Science students at a local university. He was the valedictorian of his high school class, and has a straight A average in college so far. As a result, he has been offered and has accepted a position as an undergraduate teaching assistant for an Information Networks class. Roland thinks this is a great job, because using and working on the Internet is one of his favorite activities, and he loves to share his constantly-expanding skills with other students.
 

When he's not answering questions or giving demos or other help, Roland works on his own projects, and has developed a number of personal applications. The faculty are aware of his personal development projects and have encouraged them, recognizing that the department is already benefiting from the "free" work he has done. Roland simply enjoys playing around and knows he is acquiring skills that will be useful to him when he graduates and looks for a job.
 

Roland's personal projects have also caught the eye of others around the world. As a result, he has begun receiving offers from companies to do Web development projects. At first he declined, thinking he did not have the time, and that his first responsibility was to his studies and to his job. But as the semester wore on, the students became competent and needed little help, so he often found himself with time on his hands while in the lab. Eventually, he decided to start accepting these offers, as long as they were short-term, e.g., could be done in 4-5 hours, and were accepted "as is" with no maintenance commitment. The companies were eager for quick results, and he was able to charge $50/hour for these projects. By the end of the semester, Roland was bringing in an extra $50-$100 a week through his little side projects.
 

At times Roland wondered whether he should be doing this: after all, he was being paid to work as a teaching assistant, and he was using university equipment and network connections. But he figured that he was learning more about the technology through these projects, which surely was a benefit to the department; he was also careful to put his duties, answering questions and so on, ahead of any commercial development. And besides, the equipment and network connections were just sitting there, why not put them to good use? As a student putting himself through college, the bit of extra income was really helping him out.
 

Eventually Roland's activities came to the attention of his course supervisor. The professor is torn: Roland is an excellent student, is well-regarded by faculty and peers alike, does his job well and is in general a great contributor to the department. However, he is clearly violating department policy on use of equipment, software and so on for commercial gain.
 

Should the professor take any action against Roland? And if so, what type of action should it be?