About UsAbout Us
Welcome to the Center for Ethics in Public Life, a new (as of July 1, 2008) University center that promotes teaching, research, and public discourse about ethics. The Center continues the work of President Mary Sue Coleman’s Initiative on Ethics in Public Life.
In recent years the Initiative has sponsored a wide variety of public forums on ethical issues and provided funding in support of nearly fifty programs, workshops, course development and faculty research projects. The Center will continue and expand upon these activities. We are eager to establish collaborations with individuals and units on campus and we will be expanding our funding programs in support of teaching, research, and community dialogue.
The Center builds on an outstanding set of existing programs and activities that address ethics in public life. One of our goals for the Center’s website is to assemble information about activities across campus and update them regularly so that members of the University community can take full advantage of them. As you look around the website, you will find recent news stories concerning ethics, links to resources at UM and elsewhere, information about funding opportunities available through the Center, and weekly features about scholars, courses, and programs at UM related to ethics in public life. You will also no doubt notice some omissions of programs, activities, or people that warrant inclusion on the site. The website is very much a work in progress, and we hope you will suggest additions to the site (ethics@umich.edu).
The Center’s priorities for its initial year will focus on:
- Serving as a campus resource for students, faculty, staff and the community, providing information on activities related to ethics in public life across the University of Michigan
- Increasing opportunities for undergraduate students to think about, discuss, and reflect upon ethical issues arising in their own lives, on campus, and in the nation and the world through courses and co-curricular activities
- Supporting and publicizing faculty research on ethics through support for individual research projects, symposia and conferences
- Providing opportunities for public discourse on ethics in public life through forums, symposia, and workshops for students, staff, and faculty
- Promoting teaching and research on ethics in the professions
We will be sending out a regular email newsletter (probably weekly once the academic year begins) that highlights upcoming events and provides links to news stories and ethics information from elsewhere. We invite you to add your name to our mailing list.
I am honored to serve as the founding director of the Center for Ethics in Public Life and I look forward to working with students, faculty and staff to make ethics a more central part of teaching and research. The Center will be located in Weill Hall but it is University center and we welcome participation from all corners of campus.
John R. Chamberlin
Director