November 14, 2014
St. Mary’s University on Saturday will host 22 teams from 16 universities at the Texas Regional competition of the Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl, an annual event where teams argue a position on topical ethical issues.
This year, the topics may include licenses to hunt endangered species, experimental medical techniques, the Make-a-Wish Foundation, children’s rights to assisted suicide, the Cholera epidemic in Haiti, sex with robots, a boycott of Mozilla to protest political donations made by its CEO, and smoking in cars containing children.
Event Details:
What: Texas Regional Ethics Bowl
Who: Students from 16 universities across two states
Where: St. Mary’s University; the business school’s Alkek Building
When: Competition starts at 9 a.m. and finishes about 1 p.m.
Cases are often taken from recent news headlines and can come from any conceivable area of applied ethics, such as research, business, civil liberties, politics, constitutional law or personal morality. Students spend weeks analyzing the cases, but do not know what questions they will be tackling.
The event at St. Mary’s – a collaboration between the Bill Greehey School of Business and the School of Humanities and Social Sciences – is one of 10 regional Ethics Bowl competitions being held this fall around the country. From these competitions, 32 teams will move on to the Nineteenth Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl Championship in Costa Mesa, California, on Feb. 22, 2015.
Schools from Texas and Oklahoma will participate Saturday at St. Mary’s: Brazosport College, Cameron University, Oklahoma Baptist University, Oklahoma Christian University, Oklahoma City University, Oklahoma State University, Schreiner University, St. Mary’s University, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, Texas State University, University of Central Oklahoma, University of Oklahoma, University of St. Thomas, University of Texas-Pan American, and the University of the Incarnate Word. Including students, coaches, judges, moderators and spectators, there will be about 200 people involved.
The other regionals will be held at Sacred Heart University, Clemson University, St. Petersburg College, Marian University, Harper College, University of Colorado-Boulder, Westminster College, Santa Barbara City College and Seattle Pacific University.
The Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl is sponsored by the Association for Practical and Professional Ethics.