The BSU Ethics Bowl Team may be new, but already its members are making waves.
The group of six students traveled to St. Joseph's College in Patchogue, N.Y., to represent the university at this fall’s New England Regional Ethics Bowl Competition. Despite it being the team’s first time competing, BSU made it to the quarterfinals, and finished in sixth place overall out of 26 teams from across the region. The BSU team was comprised of students Matthew Breslin, Timothy Cahill, Pattiann Daniels, Derek Lagasse, Kevin Pacheco and Jonathan Svoboda.
“We had amazing success, especially given that fact that all the teams we beat on the way to the quarterfinals had been competing for several years before ever making it past the first rounds,” said Dr. Gal Kober, assistant professor of philosophy.
Those teams hailed from the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, Salisbury University of Maryland, and Marist College. It took West Point Military Academy to finally defeat the BSU squad.
The Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl is an academic competition where teams of students argue and defend their moral assessment of difficult ethical issues. According to the web site for the Association for Practical and Professional Ethics, the organization which oversees the ethics bowls held across North America, students must demonstrate the ability to understand the facts of the case, articulate the ethical principles involved, put forth an argument on how the case should be resolved and effectively respond to challenges to their position. All this is done before a panel of judges, who score the competition.
The competing students must research 15 topics – all drawn from current events – and be ready to address any of them during the Ethics Bowl. The recent competition featured topics such as medical issues, discrimination, rights associated with employee benefits, and the buying and selling of stolen goods and artifacts from war-torn areas.
“One thing they learn is how to construct an argument and support it with data from their research,” said Dr. Deborah Litvin, assistant professor of management, who advises the team along with Professor Kober.
In fact, there’s so much research necessary that there’s a Ethics Bowl course associated with the competition, where students research various topics and view them from an ethical perspective. Each Monday in class the students debate a particular issue, one which they’ve previously researched as part of their coursework.
Mr. Svoboda, a senior and operations management major from Mansfield, said he’s learned much from his participation in the competition and the course.
“I think the most important thing I’ve gotten out of it was learning how to say what I think about something and how to present my case,” he said. “It’s the experience of thinking about what the other side may argue as well.”
The idea for a BSU Ethics Bowl Team dates to two years ago. Shortly after he arrived, Dr. Elmore Alexander, dean of the College of Business, wanted to develop a team. He reached out to professors Litvin and Kober for a hand in getting things started.
Even beyond the strong performance in its first time out, the Ethics Bowl offers many intangibles, said Ms. Daniels, a management major from Brockton.
“I thought it was great to learn to work together as a team. In most classes you don’t have that,” she said. “You find a way to help each other.”
Most of the students in the Ethics Bowl class are management majors, though this semester there is at least one communication studies major.
“I think the skills you learn in this class apply to any major,” said Jason Gebara of Brockton, who’s carrying a double major in management and economics.
For Acushnet’s Mr. Pacheco, a management major, being part of the Ethics Bowl sharpens one’s critical thinking skills.
“It really opens your eyes to understanding every side of an issue and prevents you from jumping to conclusions,” he said. (Story by John Winters, G ’11, University News & Media)