About Ethics Across the Curriculum
Program
Background
During the 1996-97 academic years, a group of interested faculty
members met to initiate the discussion and development of an ethics
across the curriculum program at Saint Louis University. A small-scale
qualitative study was conducted to analyze faculty attitudes on
the meaning of ethics and to determine how ethics could best be
taught and coordinated. In 1998, the Marchetti Jesuit Endowment
Fund provided a three-year grant to establish the Ethics Across
the Curriculum Program at Saint Louis University.
Program
Mission
The Ethics Across the Curriculum Program aims to
inspire, enhance and sustain teaching, research and service related
to ethics across the curriculum at Saint Louis University. In pursuing
its mission, the Program respects the autonomy of the various ethics
centers and programs as well as departmental efforts in such work.
Program
Goals
The Ethics Across the Curriculum Program impacts the undergraduate,
graduate and professional levels of education by:
- Identifying
efforts across the University that focus on ethics;
- Facilitating
exchange of information and resources among academic units;
- Sponsoring
lectures and workshops to stimulate conversations about
ethics;
- Providing
developmental opportunities for the faculty to become more
informed about descriptive and normative ethics;
- Offering
a supportive environment in which faculty can explore the
ethical issues relative to the classes, laboratories and
other settings in which they teach and develop curricular
materials that focus on these issues; and,
- Building
and sustaining a moral community of discourse among the
faculty, i.e., fostering a university-wide commitment to
the ethical mission of Saint Louis University in faculty
research and teaching.
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Program
Structure
The Ethics Across the Curriculum Program consists of a Director,
a Program Coordinator and an Advisory Committee.
Director:
John
Kavanaugh, S.J.
The Director is appointed by the Dean of the College of Arts and
Sciences to direct the activities of the program and to serve as
a chairperson for the Advisory Committee. The Director provides
leadership for the program by nurturing curriculum and faculty development,
advising the Program Coordinator, collaborating with the University
academic units and ethics centers, and evaluating the program. In
addition, he represents the program as keynote speaker for many
conferences and symposia throughout the year.
Fr. John Kavanaugh, S.J. currently serves as Director of Ethics
Across the Curriculum Program. Fr. Kavanaugh is a professor in the
Department of Philosophy. Ordained a priest in the Society of Jesus
in 1971, he obtained a doctorate in Social Philosophy from Washington
University in St. Louis. He has frequently published on issues of
consumerism, intrinsic value, and ethics of life (euthanasia, abortion,
war). He is the author of Human Realization: An Introduction to
the Philosophy of Man (1970), Following Christ in a Consumer Society
(1981), Faces of Poverty, Faces of Christ (1991), a three book series
entitled: The Word Embodied: Meditations on the Sunday Scriptures
(1996-98). His newest book is entitled: Who Count as Persons: Human
Identity and the Ethics of Killing (2001). A regular columnist for
America magazine, he is also an award winning syndicated columnist.
In
addition to receiving numerous awards for teaching excellence at
Saint Louis University, Fr. Kavanaugh has also pursued an international
apostolate, serving both with the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta
and the Jean Vanier communities for the handicapped in Bangalore.
Fr.
John Kavanaugh, S.J., Director
Ethics
Across the Curriculum
Humanities
Building Room 105
3800
Lindell Blvd.
St.
Louis, MO 63108-3414
Phone:
(314) 977-3159
Fax:
(314) 977-3696
Email:
kavanasj@slu.edu
Advisory
Committee
The Advisory Committee consists of members of the University community
with a special interest in ethics. The purpose of the Advisory Committee
is to provide ideas and counsel to the Director and Program Coordinator,
to assist in planning, and to enhance communication and contacts
between the Program and its constituents. Members also serve as
liaisons between the Program and their respective departments, colleges,
or schools.
The
Advisory Committee meets at least twice a year. More frequent meetings
are held as warranted. Members of the Advisory Committee receive
all publications of the Program and are invited to all public functions
hosted by the Program.
In
addition the general responsibilities noted above, members of the
Advisory Committee may be asked to serve on an evaluation committee
for grant awards; and to assist the Director and Program Coordinator
in the evaluation of the Program.
Current
Advisory Committee Members include:
Advisory
Board Profiles
Contact
Ethics Across the Curriculum @ ethics@slu.edu
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