Posted on Apr 26, 2006

Enron. Barry Bonds and steroids. Illegal downloading of music.

Each day, the headlines are filled with topics that raise serious ethical concerns. Michael S. Rapaport, ’59, believes one reason is because colleges don’t do enough to educate its students about ethics. He also thinks the students who most need ethics courses are those who avoid any class with “ethics” in the title.

Beginning next academic year, ethics will become a staple of classroom discussion across the board. The “Michael S. Rapaport Everyday Ethics Across the Curriculum Initiative,’’ will provide grants to faculty who integrate ethics segments into their regular courses.

Bob Baker, professor of philosophy

The idea grew out of a pilot project begun in 2003-04 by Economics Professor Harold Fried, who introduced ethics into the economic curriculum using a gift from Rapaport, a longtime college benefactor.

Inspired by the success of that initiative, Rapaport provided an additional gift to broaden the idea and teach ethics across the curriculum.

 

Once the program is officially launched, Union will join a select few colleges in the country that offer a broad-based ethics module in its curriculum. One of the best programs exists at Dartmouth College’s Ethics Institute. Its executive director, Aine Donovan, will meet with Union faculty who are interested in introducing ethics into their courses today (April 27) from noon to 2 p.m. in Everest Lounge.

 

Anastasia Pease, the program director for the new ethics initiative.

Union’s program will be led by Philosophy Professor Robert Baker, who also chairs the Alden March Bioethics Institute at the Graduate College of Union University; and Anastasia Pease, the program director for the new ethics initiative.

 

Among the possible ethics discussions which could find their way into classrooms are segments on scholarly or professional integrity; whistle-blowing and cheating; and a segment on intellectual property, or “stealing ideas and innovations.’’

“The initiative could transform students’ Union College experience, sensitizing them to the ethical dimensions of everyday life, equipping them to cope with ethical dilemmas and to assert moral leadership at work and in the community,’’ Baker said.