Loyola University Chicago

Beginnings: The Center for Ethics Across the University

The Center for Ethics Across the university was established in 1991, with a primary mission of integrating ethics throughout the university and developing innovative ethics-based programs and initiatives. With a capital grant from the university, the Center was founded by the past President of Loyola University Chicago, Rev. Raymond Baumhart, S.J.

The Center's first director was Patricia Werhane, Professor of Philosophy. The mission of the Center, as originally formulated, was to promote the integration of ethics throughout the university and to serve as "an important catalyst and clearinghouse for ethics-based programs and initiatives." [Fact Sheet. Chicago: The Center for Ethics, Fact 5/24/95]

In time, this mission was further developed into four aims:

1. To integrate and strengthen the university's ethics education programs for undergraduates, graduate students, and professional students
2. To enhance personal reflection and to foster a higher level of dialogue about the ethical issues faced by faculty, staff and administrators as they fulfilled their roles within the university
3. To stimulate and support research and other scholarly activity in applied ethics and ethics education
4. To develop effective outreach programs in order to share the fruits of Loyolans' work in ethics with the larger community and to provide leadership in public discussion of ethical issues important to contemporary society

The Center's first initiative was a successful program of workshops on ethics and its teaching established for Loyola faculty - an initiative mirrored today in a nationally recognized movement for "Ethics Across the Curriculum." Building on this foundation, the Center has continued these programs annually each spring to this day.

A second initiative was an innovative program of Faculty Fellowships in Ethics. Each semester four Loyola faculty were selected based on a proposal for an ethics research project related to the Fellow's home discipline. The members thus selected were released from teaching duties to spend the semester as Fellows of the Center, using their to research on their individual projects, and meeting with the Director and the Fellows in the Fellows Seminar, to strengthen their backgrounds in ethics and learn from each other. This program, too, has continued for at least one semester each year to the present day and has become a hallmark of the Center's activities.

1993 - The New Director

In 1993, the Center's current Director, David Ozar, Professor of Philosophy, was appointed. Immediately he started expanding on the work of the first Director, laying the groundwork for programs focused on the second (enhance personal reflection and dialogue) and fourth (outreach) goals, as well as developing additional programs to benefit undergraduate and graduate students under the first aim.

Two particular outreach programs progressed very quickly and significantly influenced the Center's development. During the 1994/95 academic year, to mark the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the Loyola Philosophy Department's nationally respected Graduate Program in Health Care Ethics, the Center and the Philosophy Department jointly hosted the spring national meeting of the Society for Health and Human Values (SHHV). Given the status of the SHHV as one of the most respected scholarly organization in the field of health care ethics in North America at the time, this achievement provided the Center with an increased level of visibility.

The second initiative was the Center's acceptance of the role of successor organization to the Center for Ethics and Corporate Policy (CECP). CECP was a Chicago service organization that provided corporate leaders in the Chicago area with time and assistance to reflect on and share ethical issues they faced as business persons.

One of CECP's most successful ventures was a series of Corporate Values Breakfasts for business leaders. In the role of successor organization, the Center inherited and re-launched the Breakfasts Series with great success. These ongoing breakfasts are supported by the Center's Advisory Committee for Corporate Outreach (previously the Corporate Values Outreach Advisory Board).

New Initiatives

At this time, in addition to the ongoing Ethics Workshops for faculty and Faculty Fellowships, programs were added for undergraduate and graduate students, as well as new initiatives for faculty and administrators.

Programs for undergraduate students have included working with the Core Curriculum Task Force to establish a place for ethics within the Core, administering the Elie Weisel National Essay Competition in Ethics (sponsored by the Elie Weisel Foundation), and the establishment of the Ethics Bowl program, which includes an in-house competition and coaching for the winning team towards the national Ethics Bowl competition.

Programs for Graduate Students included designing and teaching a special course in research ethics in the biomedical sciences at the Medical Center campus (with the Graduate School); co-sponsoring a series of discussions on ethical issues in research for the graduate students of the Biology Department, and establishing a discussion program focused on ethical issues in teaching for Loyola graduate students.

Programs for faculty, administrators and staff were focused at building a sense of community among faculty and enhancing collaboration on larger common projects, beginning conversations about ethical issues faced by staff and administrative personnel, and enhancing communication and effective decision-making regarding these issues. The Center was also called to collaborate with the newly established Considine Chair in Applied Ethics.

1995 - First Name Change: The Center for Ethics

As expanding opportunities for outreach and service provided an opportunity to enhance the public's growing perception of Loyola as a resource for ethics education, the Center changed its name from 'Center for Ethics Across the university' to the more inclusive name of Center for Ethics, and explicitly re-stated its three-part mission:

• Ethics and Social Justice Across the university: To enhance the level and scope of reflection within Loyola on ethics and values issues and social justice
• Research and Scholarship on Ethics and Social Justice: To enhance understanding and the practice of ethics and social justice through published research and by other activities of scholarly leadership with the academy and in the larger community
• Ethics and Social Justice Outreach: To share with the larger community the fruits of research and of other work by Loyola's faculty, staff, and students in ethics and values issues and in social justice through direct outreach activities and through creative partnerships with other interested groups and institutions.

During the years that followed, the Center expanded its outreach work, both to develop revenue and to extend Loyola's good name in the community. At the same time, it strengthened its in-house programming and sponsored numerous conferences and workshops on ethics and related subjects.

Consulting Programs

By 1996, while the Center continued to enjoy support from the university, the dream of an endowment to sustain and expand the Center had not been realized. Consequently, the Director proposed to the university that the Center set out on a more entrepreneurial path, with the goal of developing a revenue stream from the Center's Outreach programs that would not only pay for the programs themselves, but yield revenue to be applied to the Center's operating expenses. The "product" would be ethics education and advising services for corporations and for health care and child welfare organizations. The programs would be staffed with interested Loyola faculty, advanced graduate students, and the graduates of the Loyola Philosophy Department's graduate program in Health Care Ethics.

This proposal was approved in February, 1997; at that point, the Ethics Outreach Services (EOS) project in Health Care Ethics was born and plans were set in motion to expand the Center's role in corporate ethics advising as well. A number of consulting programs was thus developed, and for the first time, revenue was generated for the Center through the fees paid by external clients. During 1997-98 alone, the Center contracted to provide services toone child welfare organization and six health care organizations in Illinois and Michigan.

While the consulting program was initially born out of the necessity to earn funds, one of the most successful and unique endeavors of the Center has been its ability to translate ethics research and teaching into practical application in the community, a central component of the mission of the university.

2001 - The Center for Ethics and Social Justice

In July 1, 2001, the Center changed its name for the second time. Now called the Center for Ethics and Social Justice, the Center also sought to make the social justice component of its mission more explicit. The Center's work included social justice activities prior to that date; but on that date a number of important social justice activities that were previously conducted by Loyola's Considine Chair in Applied Ethics became part of the Center.

In 2003, the Center's Mission statement was re-stated:

1. Contribution to University Outreach: The Center shall provide a gathering-place for scholars and other communities Loyola serves to engage in thoughtful multi-disciplinary reflection and application of ethical virtues and principles in their respective disciplines as well as supporting the Jesuit values of compassion and justice in discussions related to issues of pressing societal concern.
2. Contribution to University Voice: The Center shall promote and assist the university in fulfilling its societal responsibilities as Chicago's Jesuit University for being a voice for reason, compassion, and justice in society.
3. Contribution to University Character: The Center shall develop programs and initiatives for the university administration, staff, students, and faculty to be more fully and effectively engaged in the scholarly application of ethics to all aspects of their work.

The values that drive the Center are those that drive Loyola University Chicago, as an urban Catholic Jesuit University. Simply stated, the university community is dedicated to expanding knowledge in the service of humanity through faith, learning and justice.

While the wording of the mission of the Center for Ethics and Social Justice has changed somewhat over the years, the nature of the work has remained consistent. By 2003, the Center has sponsored ten national conferences, and is involved in a long list of innovative activities inside and beyond the university that support its threefold mission:

1. In the interests of Contribution to University Outreach:

• The annual Corporate Values Breakfast Series
• A national Ethics Across the Curriculum (EAC) Project
• The Center is the national business office for the Professional Ethics in Dentistry Network and oversees the publication of that organization's newsletter. It is also the editorial home of the peer-reviewed journal, Issues in Dental Ethics.
• Public conferences and symposia on current issues of social and ethical concern
• An annual short course in Health Care Ethics for Hospital Ethics Committees
• An annual course on Professional Ethics in Dentistry, in collaboration with the university of Illinois at Chicago College of Dentistry
• A national biennial conference on Dental Ethics
• A national biennial Conference on Organizational Ethics in Health Care
• National and regional scholarly conferences on business and organizational ethics, social justice, clinical health care ethics, dental ethics and ethics in information technologies
• A public education project on Advanced-Care-Planning and End-of-Life Health Care Decision-Making, in collaboration with the Kellogg Cancer Center of Evanston Northwestern Healthcare and the North Shore Senior Center
• The Ethics AdviceLine for Journalists, in collaboration with the Chicago Headline Club, the Chicago chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists
• Service on national and local professional boards and ethics committees
• Consulting programs in ethics, social justice, and ethics educationfor business and health care organizations, other colleges and universities, professional schools and professional associations, and other ethics centers.

2. In the interests of Contribution to University Voice:

• The Considine Chair in Applied Ethics
• A major conference in 2002 on Poverty and the university
• In 2003, the Peace Fair event and other commemorations of the 40th anniversary of Pope John XXIII's encyclical Peace on Earth
• Books, scholarly articles and presentations, and ethics consulting by the Center's Director and Graduate Assistants
• Scholarly articles and presentations on ethics and social justice by the Center's Ethics Fellows

3. In the interests of Contribution to University Character:

• The Loyola Faculty Fellows Program
• The Faculty Ethics Workshops
• Ethics Across the Curriculum Programs
• Service to Other Loyola Units on Ethics-Related Programs
• An Annual Undergraduate Ethics Bowl Program and the participation in the Loyola-Marymount Business Ethics Competition
• Support for the Faculty/Staff Africa Immersion Program
• Buehler Grants for Loyola faculty and academic departments