Robert Young's Evaluation Report - 2007

This evaluation will focus on the initial phase of the three-year Kaiser Ethics Project at the University of Wyoming funded by the Kaiser Foundation.  It will assess the project’s progress toward achieving its two broad goals: to develop courses that promote the teaching of ethics across the curriculum and to develop a cadre of “Kaiser Faculty” who will provide mentoring and leadership in the teaching of ethics at the university for years to come.

 The evaluation will discuss and critique four main aspects of the project as they developed during this initial stage of the grant:

• Project Implementation and Coordination
• The Application Process
• Overview of the Applications for 2006/2007
• Project Support During the Year

Project Implementation and Coordination

The project is jointly administered by the U W Department of Philosophy and the Ellbogen Center for Teaching and Learning.  The co-directors of the project, Professor Jane Nelson, Director of the Ellbogen Center, and Professor Ed Sherline, Head of the Department of Philosophy, shared responsibilities as they implemented the project in the fall of 2006.

The planning and execution of the project and the choices of complementary public programming supported by Kaiser Foundation funds were clearly conceived, and the logistical support as well as the cost-sharing for the project was smoothly coordinated.

The two directors organized and co-chaired an advisory committee for the project that included an impressive cross-section of faculty from each of the colleges of the university.  The advisory committee worked with the directors to produce a clear and concise Call for Proposals, which was sent to all university faculty on September 12, 2006.  Committee members also served as useful liaisons between their respective college faculties and the project directors.

The grant application to the Kaiser Foundation indicated that the project would not try to re-invent the wheel as far as designing a series of campus-wide ethics courses; instead, it proposed to examine several existing ethics courses as possible models for the UW program.  In particular, the directors looked to an acclaimed applied ethics program at Princeton University as a possible model. 

In so doing, the directors articulated a thoughtful vision of an ethics program that promises to fit into the overall pedagogical goals of the University of Wyoming and to realistically address student needs and capacities within the broader framework of the university’s general education curriculum.  The decision, for example, to emphasize applied ethics and to integrate the teaching of ethics into existing courses and teaching routines rather than to emphasize pure or theoretical ethics is a wise one.

As many experienced teachers of ethics have pointed out, the whole connotation of “teaching ethics” in our society is fraught with a variety of points of view, so it was important that the project, early on, reach a broad consensus as to what courses in ethics education should accomplish. In this regard, the Department of Philosophy was helpful in guiding the project participants toward agreement about the goals of the enterprise.

The Department of Philosophy, through the Kaiser Ethics Endowment, invited Professor Stephen Macedo, the Director of the Center on Human Values at Princeton University, to give the inaugural Kaiser Ethics Lecture at UW on September 8^th.   In cooperation with the Department of Philosophy, the Ellbogen Center capitalized on Macedo’s visit and arranged for him to meet for a day with the Kaiser project’s advisory committee.  With Macedo’s help, the committee worked to create a broad conceptual framework to guide the development of the ethics courses supported by the Kaiser Foundation grant.  Committee members agreed that the courses should avoid steering students toward a particular ethical point of view but should rather guide students in analyzing real-world ethical situations.  Students should not be told what to think; they should be trained how to think critically.

The agreement regarding the nature of the courses to be developed was an important accomplishment.  It meant that while such courses would have a good deal of flexibility, they would also exhibit a consistency of purpose. At the very least they would make it clear that there are ethical problems in personal, professional,  and civic life, and the way in which such problems are understood and responded to can make a profound difference to that life.

Macedo’s visit and his work with the Kaiser Project‘s advisory committee also illustrated one of the strengths of the project: excellent coordination between the Ellbogen Center and the Department of Philosophy. Indeed, cooperation between the co-directors and coordination between their departments has been one of the chief characteristics of the project.

The Application Process

On September 12, 2006, the Kaiser Project Call for Proposals was sent to all university faculty.  Eight faculty members submitted proposals by the application deadline of October 11.  On October 17, the project advisory committee met to review the applications.

While not all of the colleges of the university submitted applications, this initial batch of eight represented a cross-section of faculty members who were responsible for teaching courses across a wide spectrum of disciplines:  English, Accounting, Biochemistry, Biology, Social Work, Women’s Studies, and Agricultural Economics.

The review process was thorough, conscientious, and fair.  Committee members offered practical suggestions to improve the application process, and they made suggestions for supporting successful applicants as they developed their courses.  Members agreed, for example, that future applicants should be required to submit a brief but clear budget with their proposals.  Additionally, the committee strongly endorsed the Kaiser project directors’ plans for a workshop that would aim to provide the successful applicants training in ethics course development.

After careful deliberation, the advisory committee decided unanimously to fund all eight of the applications – a good and sensible decision given the high quality of the projects and considering the importance of developing a cadre of faculty throughout the university to serve as leaders and mentors for future applicants.

In sum, the application process worked well.  The Call for Proposals was clear and its criteria were consistent with the stated goals of the project.  While the amount of time between the initial Call for Proposals and the deadline for applications was adequate, the directors should consider extending it, if only because the beginning of the academic year is a busy time for faculty and a more generous application deadline may encourage more proposals.

Overview of the Ethics Projects for 2006/2007

The projects funded in the first year of the grant are, as of this writing, all underway and in various stages of development.  The Accounting Department, for example, has used its grant funds to significantly increase and refine the ethical content of its capstone course, Accounting Ethics and Professionalism.   The Division of Social Work expanded the scope of its grant to include faculty from the School of Nursing and the School of Pharmacy.  The project has taken significant steps toward the creation of a portfolio of ethical case study vignettes that will provide a rich and useful resource for instructors and students throughout the College of Health Sciences.  The Women’s’ Studies Program developed a specific ethics component which it plans to incorporate into its Women’s Studies Internship Program beginning in the fall semester, 2007.

Five of the funded projects are currently in their initial stages, developing applied ethics content for courses that will be taught in the coming year in Biology, Biochemistry, Agriculture, and English.

All of the funded projects, whether underway or in their beginning stages, promise to make significant contributions toward the integration of applied ethics content into courses across a wide variety of disciplines.  The commitment of the grant applicants to the goals of the Kaiser Ethics Project is strong and enthusiastic, and their talents as teachers and mentors will prove to be a vital resource as the project moves into its second year.

Project Support During the Year

The Ellbogen Center and its director and staff provided excellent administrative and logistical support for the project.  The Center has substantial experience in the administration and support of similar projects, so its smooth coordination of this program came as no surprise.  In cooperation with the Philosophy Department and with additional support from the Kaiser Ethics Endowment, the Center forged partnerships, supported workshops, and coordinated a visiting scholars program, all of which provided the project with a coherent and rigorous intellectual and pedagogical foundation.

In particular, the fall workshop for the new Kaiser Faculty, held on November 3, 2006, was an important event, for it not only created a forum for the discussion of techniques and strategies for teaching ethics in a wider variety of courses, but it also established a collegial atmosphere among all participants.

The workshop, which included well-chosen readings that explored a broad range of goals in the teaching of ethics, resulted in a rich exchange of ideas and helped the Kaiser Faculty members focus on both the goals and the limitations inherent in developing ethical content for existing undergraduate courses.  Professor Sherline deftly led workshop participants through a useful discussion of some of the practical dilemmas of teaching ethics across the curriculum.  He pointed out, for example, that the study of ethics, though vital, is nevertheless an austere pleasure, not always appreciated by today’s busy undergraduate students.  Therefore, he averred, expert teaching skills are perhaps more important than a thorough knowledge of ethical philosophy in the task of making courses in applied ethics palatable to students who often prefer black-and-white answers to issues that are largely grey.  The practical realities of student interest, institutional demands and the limitations of time need to be taken into consideration when developing ethical components for existing undergraduate courses.  Still, such realities are constantly with us, and workshop participants agreed that the challenge of encouraging students to engage real life issues in a critically reflective manner is both exciting and important.  Participants also agreed that although the object of ethical education is not to moralize, it is nevertheless vital for courses in ethics to foster an understanding that human beings live their lives in a complex web of moral relationships, and students should be provoked to understand that there is a “moral point of view” to issues that arise in their professional, personal and civic lives.  In short, the workshop was an invigorating and successful discussion of the joys and challenges involved in ethics education. 

A second workshop, held on May 23, 2007, provided an opportunity for Kaiser Faculty to meet as a group and exchange reports about the progress of their projects.  Those faculty members whose projects were well underway provided useful insights to their colleagues regarding which teaching strategies worked, which needed to be refined, and which needed to be abandoned.  The workshop was a valuable opportunity for this initial group of Kaiser Faculty to begin to share their collective experiences, and it was an important step toward building a cadre of mentors and a corpus of resources to serve as guides for next year’s participants.  All of those who attended the workshop applauded the opportunity for a frank exchange of ideas and urged that more workshops of this nature be organized in the future.

Summary

The Kaiser Ethics Project is off to a good start.  It is being effectively and responsibly administered, and it has demonstrated a strong spirit of cooperation between its two supporting organizations.  The application process worked smoothly, and the funded projects promise to provide excellent models for future applicants.  In the future, the directors should consider extending the time period between the project’s call for proposals and the deadline for applications.

The workshops supported by the Ellbogen Center were intelligently conceived and thoughtfully executed.  The project’s goal of developing a core of faculty members who will act as examples and mentors is well served by such workshops. Despite busy academic schedules during the year, the directors should consider offering more of these opportunities for the Kaiser Faculty to exchange information, ideas, and strategies as they develop a campus-wide ethics curriculum.

This is an exciting and challenging project, and I have been pleased and honored to play a role in it.

Robert G. Young, Ph.D.
Project Evaluator