Ethics Across the Campus

The Ethics Across Campus (EAC) program at the Colorado School of Mines works across courses, research, interpersonal relationship, and academic honesty to promote and coordinate ethics teaching. Within the restructuring efforts, the EAC program has begun to engage equity and diversity within curriculum development, research the ethical dimensions of AI, and study macroethics for sustainability. The new ethical teaching and research happening at the EAC program stem from a series of recent strategic partnerships within their community. What Professor Woodson finds especially compelling and unique about the EAC is the breadth of these strategic partnerships that include: cross-departmental faculty, administrative staff, the office of Title IX, the Dean of Students, and the Office of Research and Technology Transfer.

Professor Sandy Woodson began with a simple question, “What do you wish you had known when you received your undergrad degree?” In a meeting between the Ethics Across Campus (EAC) program leaders and their advisory board (made up of alumni and senior industry professionals), Woodson wondered how the EAC program could begin to restructure itself to better serve the campus’ multifaceted ethics efforts.

The EAC is doing exciting work generating ethics courses and content, including a new ethics bowl course and ethics module/s in STEM courses! They are also interested in identifying ethics-friendly faculty within each academic department to offset the loss of ethics faculty that occurred during the pandemic. Of this, Professor Woodson says, “we need to get our feet back under us post-COVID,” a part of that process has already begun and continues through acquiring personnel and, in time, reconstituting their advisory board. There is much to look forward to in the near future of the EAC program; you can keep up to date and learn more about their efforts here on their website!

Has ethics made a difference at your institution over time? Contact Alexis Jimenez Maldonado, alexismaldonado@fas.harvard.edu, with ideas for forthcoming Spotlights.