As part of an effort to integrate ethics more fully into the lives of undergraduates, administrators have begun considering the creation of a certificate program dedicated to the field.
Dean of Trinity College Robert Thompson said he and Kenan Institute for Ethics Director Elizabeth Kiss are investigating the possibility, particularly given heightened awareness of ethics on campus. That awareness has come in many forms, including the addition of an ethical-inquiry component under Curriculum 2000, the establishment of the Academic Integrity Council and several public addresses about the issue over the past few years.
"We seek for students to develop their abilities to articulate ethical questions, to assess competing claims and to understand diverse meanings of justice, goodness and virtue across time, place and communities," Thompson explained in an e-mail.
He said one way Duke might more heavily concentrate an experience in ethics as a field would be through a certificate program. These programs typically consist of six courses, an integrated capstone course and an experiential component.
Although graduate and professional ethics courses have been in place for some time, Honor Council member Andrew Nurkin, a junior, said he feels undergraduates do not take advantage of courses that take an ethical-inquiry approach.
"I think students at Duke are really interested in studying ethics in a religious and political sense," Nurkin said. "A lot of Duke students go on to be pre-med, pre-law.... It would benefit them to have that type of experience on their resume."
In particular, administrators said they hope to provide students with the understanding, skills and perspectives needed for them to pursue leadership roles.
"One dimension is moral and civic responsibility," Thompson said. "This recognition led to an inclusion of an ethical-inquiry component to our new curriculum to provide an opportunity for students to develop their ability to assess critically the consequences of actions, both individual and social, and the ethical implications of public and personal decision making."
One place at Duke where ethics has a strong presence is the School of Law, which offers several courses dedicated to ethics. James Coleman, professor of the practice of law, teaches a course on the ethics of lawyering but expressed disappointment in the level of student interest.
"Students blow off ethics courses because they don't think it applies to their futures, but to the extent that people get into trouble, it is usually due to ethical reasons," Coleman said. "I think for both generally and for the law, everything we value requires ethical behavior."
Third-year law students Nicole Crawford and Susan Wood began Lawyers as Leaders as a response to declining interest in ethical responsibility. The program is designed to further students' knowledge of ethical leadership in the profession.
"Ethical responsibility to the public interest--for contemporary lawyers that does not mean that much," Crawford said. "All law students are required to take professional ethics, but as opposed to the school of public policy, they don't teach grand theories. That may be an area in which the law school can improve."
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